MMWD should begin expanding reservoirs now For decades, the Marin Municipal Water District has researched ways to expand its water supply. The efforts of this research have included (among other topics) pitches to expand current storage facilities; the pros and cons of acquiring or increasing the amount of water purchased from nearby counties; and the feasibility of developing a Marin County desalination plant. The apparent product of this research is that there is no consensus on the best way forward.
Sadly, no significant MMWD projects — neither long-term, nor short-term — have begun. This taxpayer-funded research has resulted in years of unproductive, elapsed time that has ignored an old Marin County adage: The water shortfall problem in Marin is typically one of inadequate water capture rather than insufficient rainfall. In other words, the rain that now drains annually into the Pacific Ocean from Marin could be captured and stored in our own reservoirs if they were expanded.
MMWD leaders have, for decades, relied on consumer conservation to meet the county’s growing need for water. In the last election, voters replaced several members of the board’s “conservation club” with people who professed that water policy action might be possible. They were elected and residents have been patient.
A short-term MMWD tactic was recently previewed in the IJ (“Marin Municipal Water District develops conservation playbook,” May 5). I took it to mean that we are to prete.