85 replies to this topic

[keyplayer]

A bit off from where this topic has gone but on our walk this morning we saw 5 houses with sprinklers going and water running down driveways and street gutters. It rained last night and was still sprinkeling on our walk. And I don't think Suday is a watering day for anyone. Maybe the city should get someone patroling and writing reminders on Sunday mornings. We saw the same thing last weekend too.

[keyplayer]

OK I just looked it up and Sunday is a water day for even but do you need the sprinklers on yet? We still have muddy places in our yard from the rain.

[Darth Lefty]

Maybe they think they need to get their sprinklering done now before the water restrictions go in!

[Bill Z]

OK I just looked it up and Sunday is a water day for even but do you need the sprinklers on yet? We still have muddy places in our yard from the rain.

I was contemplating turning my sprinklers on until it rained almost a 1/2 inch at my house last night. I could see my dirt in my lawn was cracking like how dried mud cracks and felt it might need to get watered, but when I saw Mother Nature had watered, I knew I could leave my sprinkler controllers in the off mode for at least another week.

And yes, Wed & Sun are my 2 days a week under the Stage 3 Alert requirements.

The other day, we drove by a house that zero-scaped their front yard, and it looked good.
If we hit Stage 4 early this year, I may decide to go that route.

[ducky]

My water days are Sunday and Wednesday, too. I don't feel like the sprinklers need to be on, but some of the planters are drying out. The rain wasn't quite enough to get some of the sheltered places.

[Bill Z]

according to weatherchannel.com, there is a 10% chance of rain up through 9 PM tonight, and then it is 0% chance for the next 10 days. I sure hope they finish the work on US 50 between EDH Blvd & Bass Lake Road cuz I want to drive my fun car to work again, with the road tore up and gravel getting spit by tires, I don't want any paint chips or cracked windshields on it.

[ducky]

Robert G. was certainly on the right track regarding the likelihood that the methodology used to determine our water usage "per person" is flawed and deceptive.

By the numbers:

Claimed usage "per person/per day" = 400 gallons

This would be about 146,000 gallons/per person/ per year

An acre foot of water = 325,851 gallons

Therefore, per the report, each person in Folsom would be using about 0.45 acre feet of water per year.

As of 2007, the State of California's estimate of Folsom's population is 70,835

Therefore, this results in a total usage for the City of 31,875 acre feet.

Not surprisingly, this is the sum total of ALL of the City's water rights (about 32,000 acre feet, might be as high as 34,000), which includes about 8,960 acre feet contracted to Aerojet and other large amounts reserved for Intel (2,800), Kikkoman (516), Gekkeikan Sake (150).

So even though the article indicates that their numbers exclude industrial and agriculture, they, at best apparently missed that almost 30% of our water goes to Aerojet.

Therefore, the amount left over for Folsom residents AND all other Folsom businesses, City Parks and landscaped areas would be about 19,724 acre feet. This would result in a revised usage "per person" of only 248 gallons per day, even though, again, that number would include each person’s "share" of water used by businesses and the City. Not too far off of the 190 gallons per day reported for Davis.

Room for improvement? Of course, but the quickness with which some have jumped on this band wagon is surprising.

I knew this had already been discussed, and I finally found it. Bob's math skills are better than mine. I'm just not buying that .50 acre feet per person per year figure for Folsom.

[Dave Burrell]

I'll be upfront and admit I don't understand the aerojet water deal - what does aerojet need 30% of our water for?

[Chad Vander Veen]

I don't use 400 gallons per day. I guarantee it.

[eVader]

according to weatherchannel.com, there is a 10% chance of rain up through 9 PM tonight, and then it is 0% chance for the next 10 days. I sure hope they finish the work on US 50 between EDH Blvd & Bass Lake Road cuz I want to drive my fun car to work again, with the road tore up and gravel getting spit by tires, I don't want any paint chips or cracked windshields on it.

Drove that section last night in wife's car... &#@^&( Even keeping a huge distance still had rocks being thrown up and bszzzzzzbmmmmmmbzzzz vibrations from the road. Thought the rain would have helped clean things up but not the case. Let it be clear so they can finish and then a few more storms

[melloguy]

I knew this had already been discussed, and I finally found it. Bob's math skills are better than mine. I'm just not buying that .50 acre feet per person per year figure for Folsom.

The number comes from Folsom's Master Water Plan. It does not include the prison or San Juan customers and was updated less than one year ago.

Easy to make arguments that the water usage is lower than it appears (e.g., looks to be a few thousand acre feet bump from Kikkoman), but not enough to bring it anywhere near average usage.

ForumReader - I'll try to keep up w/ this one. Mostly just appear as a guest these days.

[ducky]

The number comes from Folsom's Master Water Plan. It does not include the prison or San Juan customers and was updated less than one year ago.

Easy to make arguments that the water usage is lower than it appears (e.g., looks to be a few thousand acre feet bump from Kikkoman), but not enough to bring it anywhere near average usage.

ForumReader - I'll try to keep up w/ this one. Mostly just appear as a guest these days.

Thank you for providing the link. Admittedly, I haven't looked through all 160 pages, but I couldn't find the figure you cited. Do you have the page number handy?

Also, it's not just Kikkoman. In addition they list the large water users as Gekkeikan, Aerojet, and Intel. Also, there is a table for what they call unaccounted for water I'm just wondering what the real number would be if you took all that out along with parks, schools, medians and had just a purely household usage number.

[jagayman]

Question about the stage alerts -- wondering if any officials on the board have the answer.

If your water day is Saturday, but you are asked to water between 10PM and 10AM, does that mean you can water from 10PM Saturday night to 10AM Sunday morning, or do you have midnight Saturday to 10AM Saturday and then 10PM Saturday to midnight Sunday?

I might just have to water at midnight Saturday morning and 11:30PM Saturday night -- two short soakings. I can't water too long since my front yard is a steep hill that just sheds water after any long period of watering.

[MrsTuffPaws]

Question about the stage alerts -- wondering if any officials on the board have the answer.

If your water day is Saturday, but you are asked to water between 10PM and 10AM, does that mean you can water from 10PM Saturday night to 10AM Sunday morning, or do you have midnight Saturday to 10AM Saturday and then 10PM Saturday to midnight Sunday?

I might just have to water at midnight Saturday morning and 11:30PM Saturday night -- two short soakings. I can't water too long since my front yard is a steep hill that just sheds water after any long period of watering.

I recently moved from an apartment to a house where I had to do the gardening. I had the same question and asked a water official via email.

this is the gist of the response...

"If your water day is Saturday, you can water from 12:00 am early Saturday morning until 10:00am Saturday morning. Then you can water again that same night between 10:00pm and midnight. Manual watering can be done anytime on your watering day." [/fake quote]

[FolsomFrogGuy]

It's ridiculous that in a time of drought our lake is still going to be used to flush the delta. We need our city leaders to step up and stop this madness,

From the article:
Water continues to be released from the lake, even during periods of the lake at record low levels.

"Folsom is the first to be (used) to flush the Delta," he said. "We don't want to be tasked with fixing the problems the Delta has."

The council also heard from a water rights attorney who told them of some of the state's Orwellian plans for the water behind Folsom Dam.

"(The Delta Vision Plan calls to) release more from Folsom and Shasta and reallocate water supplies from existing uses to new uses without compensation," said attorney Paul Berkowitz.

He said the direct impact on Folsom could be about one million acre feet of water, or the lake filled to the brim, drained completely and another 23,000 acre feet taken after it's refilled. Now, that's a lot of water.

The city recently passed a resolution seeking to retain control over any water it conserves. …

Other than proximity, how are you concluding that it is "our lake"? Are you referring to specific agreements that were made at the time of its construction by the Feds, perhaps in exchange for existing city/town storage on site and since covered...?

Unlike other reservoirs this far north, Folsom is the only one near average historic capacity, as you can see here.

You need to keep in mind, that enough water must be flushed through the Delta, not just for fish purposes, but to maintain water quality for the people who live, farm and ranch in the Delta as well as those who use the water exported from the Delta (to keep their golf courses green, of course!). So, the lake actually contains water shared by millions of people and a great big proportion of the agricultural community down river and down canal. Plus, it's looking like we're entering a long-term dry period, with reduced snow storage that we need to start adapting to. Remember last year, despite the huge snow packs, most of that water evaporated or was soaked up into the ground and not so much stored in reservoirs...