The recent wet weather has made a decent impact on a local reservoir, bringing water levels up to a threshold that hasn't been recorded since 2012.
“For us in particular, every drop of water that lands in our watershed, we try to capture, so that we can then clean it, treat it and deliver it to our customers,” Roberto Yano, the assistant general manager at Sweetwater Authority, told NBC 7 on Friday.
He says between the water that has been transferred from Loveland Reservoir and rain that fell from Jan. 22 to Feb. 29, levels are up.
”Since January, we probably captured about 2.8 billion gallons,” Yano said.
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The reservoir can store 28,000 acre-feet of water, which Yano says equates to about 320,000 gallons per acre-feet.
“Think of a big football field filled with a foot of water, so 28,000 of those,” Yano said.
As of March 1, the reservoir was 75% of its capacity — a level Yano says hasn’t been reached since 2012. According to the agency, the last time it was over capacity was in 1998, which is the last time water went over the spillway.
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“These last couple of years we’ve seen better runoff, better rain projections for us and obviously every drop helps,” Yano said.
Yano says the cleaned and treated water from the reservoir serves about 200,000 customers across west Chula Vista, National City and other parts of the county. In this case, he says the surplus of rain means Sweetwater Authority saves money and helps customers, too.
So far, Yano says the agency has saved $11 million this year. However, the agency does manage a diverse portfolio when it comes to water resources.
”We do have the option of purchasing water from the county water authority which is our most expensive water, but we also manage ground wells," Yano said. "The water gets treated there at our desal plant and also helps us deliver water to our customers. We have runoff water in our dams, and when we cap those out, we do purchase water from the county water authority."
Yano says, with the storage the reservoir does have right now, there's enough water for customers for at least two years. With back-to-back wet winters that brought better runoff and more moisture, Yano says that every drop of rain makes a difference.
“We’re happy to have it here every time," Yano said.
