Their Water Secret…

On April 23, 2007 there was a story printed in the San Jose Mercury about Santa Clara County’s water secret. They use groundwater as a huge part of their system of pulling water for the county. A whopping 40% of the water supply to the whole county is used from their groundwater basins, saving their tanks and towers from the full use. This extra amount of water allows for them to be at ease and ‘comfortable’ with water usage, while other county communities are facing restrictive measures. Like how “in Santa Cruz, watering the lawn in the middle of the day will soon be against the law,” and other counties are going to be going through water rationing. But Why? Why doesn’t Santa Cruz pool more groundwater and store it for usage? Or why not bring in water from other areas like the Sacramento River or the Delta? If water shortage is going to be an issue to the point of rationing, or just plain ‘against the law’ to use it at certain times of the day, then I think that some major change needs to be done here in the Santa Cruz County. And the only thing that Toby Goddard, water conservation manager of the City of Santa Cruz Water Department, has to say about this is “I don’t know if we’re jealous, but…”