With rain expected off and on through the weekend, water
watchers are keeping a close eye on streams, sewers and,
especially, the reservoirs.
By Carol holzgrafe and Matt king
Staff Writers
With rain expected off and on through the weekend, water watchers are keeping a close eye on streams, sewers and, especially, the reservoirs.
Wet weather is forecast through Thursday, with a chance of showers into the weekend.
“They’re pretty darn full,” Mike DiMarco, spokesman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, said about the reservoirs.
As of Monday morning, the Chesbro Reservoir was at 96 percent capacity, Uvas Reservoir was 93.5 percent, and Anderson Reservoir, 97 percent.
All three Morgan Hill area reservoirs were still taking on water, but DiMarco said this week’s rain will likely not cause any flooding.
“There’s no cause for alarm. The creeks are relatively low,” he said. “It’s when you have rainstorms that lumber in and stay a long time this late in the season that you have a problem.”
Anderson Reservoir, east of the city, is close to spilling over but that crowd-pleasing sight is not likely to happen, DiMarco said.
“We have been releasing water from the bottom (of the dam),” DiMarco said. “The goal is to keep it as close to full as possible without spilling over.”
Decisions are made daily and depend on forecasts.
Anderson last spilled during early February 1998. It also spilled in January 1997. In 1999 and 2000, capacity reached 97 percent for short periods.
The spillway of the dam is 644.5 feet high. Monday afternoon, the reservoir level was 623.7 feet high.
The purpose of the water juggle is to balance ending the rainy season with the maximum amount of water on tap against possible flooding on the valley floor below the dam.
“We try to end up with full reservoirs,” DiMarco said.
During the summer months, water is released from local reservoirs to replenish the underground water supply.
The situation at Uvas, with a capacity of 9,835-acre-feet, and Chesbro, with 7,945-acre-feet, is similar. The water district is releasing water from both as rains continue.
Anderson is by far the largest of the county reservoirs with a capacity of 90,373-acre-feet. Coyote, the second largest, is 45.6 percent away from its 23,244-acre-feet capacity.
An acre-foot of water, the volume of water which would cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot – is enough water to serve a family of five for a year.
Morgan Hill Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft said the weekend was quiet, water wise, with no plugged up sewers or overflowing creeks. Little Llagas Creek runs through downtown and frequently overflows when rains are persistent and heavy.
Just in case, he said, the city does provide free sandbags at the Public Works Department off Edes Court, west of Monterey Road between Cosmo and West Edmundson.
“But we don’t expect any problem since they predict no more than one-half inch of rain each day,” he said.
The rain did force cancellation of Pony Baseball’s opening ceremonies.
The National Weather Service did issue a high wind and surf advisory for the San Francisco Bay Area between 4pm Monday and 4am today.
Morgan Hill has received 18.27 inches to date, 2.64 inches since Feb. 21; in a normal year – ending June 30 – it receives 19.77 inches.
According to the National Weather Service, the heaviest rainfall this week was expected to fall Monday night and into this morning. The rest of the week will resemble this past weekend, with showers mixing with sunshine and highs in the mid-60s.
The week of March 21-25 has been designated by the NWS as National Flood Safety Awareness Week.
The campaign’s goal is to highlight ways flooding can occur and what citizens can do to protect themselves and their property.
www.noaa.gov and www.wrh.noaa.gov
