Category: conservation

What is Valley Water?

August 15, 2024 / Bill Roth / 4 Comments

One of the questions we receive frequently in this campaign is “What is Valley Water?”. Simply put, Valley Water is Santa Clara County’s local integrated water services agency. This means that it has several specific roles involving water in our county as part of its core missions. For the most part, Valley Water is the “water wholesaler” in the county. This means that it manages the county’s water resources, and then sells that water to entities that sell that water to you, like San Jose Water and the City of Santa Clara.

The Water District is also known as the Santa Clara Valley Water District. It’s website is at http://valleywater.org/. There is a decent history of how Valley Water came to be on Wikipedia.

Valley Water is unique among water agencies in that it has three principal goals: First, to supply water to the people of Santa Clara County; Second, to provide flood control for the county; Third, to protect and preserve the environment on land it owns. We’ll cover these in order.

Valley Water supplies water to over 2 million residents and 15 cities in Santa Clara County, managing a vast network of infrastructure including 10 dams, reservoirs, 3 treatment plants, and over 150 miles of pipelines. They have a stated commitment to sustainability which extends to diverse water sources, including recycled water, surface water, and groundwater extraction from local aquifers. For more information on where Valley Water gets its water, check out Where Does My Water Come From?.

Flood Protection

The Water District takes a proactive approach to flood prevention. They operate flood detention basins and maintain over 800 miles of waterways to protect communities from natural disasters. Their projects, like the Upper Guadalupe River Flood Protection project, aim to restore habitats while ensuring safety and flood resilience for businesses, homes, and schools. You can read more about the Stream Maintenance Program here.

Through watershed management and habitat restoration initiatives, Valley Water safeguards five major watersheds in Santa Clara County, preserving habitats for endangered species like the Red-legged Frog and Steelhead Trout. Its dedication to environmental protection ensures the longevity of our region’s ecosystems.

Addressing Challenges

There are a number of challenges facing water resource agencies in the western United States. These include avoiding over-extraction, adapting to climate change, and educating the community about its work and also about the incentives it can offer to improve conservation and water usage.

Over-Extraction Mitigation

Recognizing the challenges of over-extraction, we’re committed to managing groundwater sustainably to prevent land subsidence and ensure a reliable water supply for future generations. Our efforts include monitoring water levels, implementing conservation measures, and promoting responsible water use.

Climate Change Adaptation

In response to climate change impacts such as droughts and severe weather events, Valley Water has developed the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP). This comprehensive strategy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding renewable energy, and enhancing water supply and flood protection measures to build resilience in our community.

Community Engagement and Education

One major challenge is teaching residents of the county what the Valley Water does. Valley Water with the community through educational programs, virtual events, and school initiatives to promote water conservation, environmental stewardship, and public health. In addition, there are marketing programs to let residents know about the various rebates that exist for things like landscape conversion, conservation, and rainwater capture.

In summary, Valley Water is Santa Clara County’s $900 Million/year¹ integrated water service agency. As a public agency seprate from the County of Santa Clara, it has a three-part mandate of ensuring water supply, flood protection, and environmental stewardship of creeks and watersheds. It is the “water wholesaler” for the county, which means it manages the counties public water related resources, and sells water to retailers, like San Jose Water, who in turn, sell it to you, the consumer.

I am running for a seat on the Board of Directors for Valley Water to make sure we keep water rates as low as possible, and to deliver safe and clean water to Santa Clara County for generations to come. For more information about my campaign, sign up for our newsletter below.

In revenue terms. ↩︎

Leak Detection with Flume: Digital Water Meters

June 24, 2024 / Bill Roth / 0 Comments

There are several ways to lower your water bill. One is conservation, or simply using less water. Another way to lower your water bill is to make sure the cost of the water is low, so the user’s bill remains low. (More on that in a future post). But one topic almost rarely gets covered. Leaks.

Most of the meters in Santa Clara County are old-school mechanical meters. However, it seems San Jose Water has approval to update our meters to newer, digital ones. I can find no information on the wider rollout of newer meters. If you know anything about this, please comment below.

A couple of years back, my water bill was kept going up, and I could not figure out why. At the time I was mostly living alone, as this was during the pandemic. My daughters were in college or away working. I could not find any obvious leaks. Like the good nerd that I am, I looked to technology for answers. I found Flume.

For the record: this is not a product review. I’m merely relaying my experience with one of the commercial products. It worked for me, but your mileage may vary.

About Flume

Flume is a box you attach to your water meter, a wireless bridge, and an app on your phone. I have had mine for about 2 years. The installation is very simple. You strap the box to your water meter at the street level, and connect it to the gateway. The gateway is a box I have sitting on my window sill, and it bridges between the device and my wifi network. Finally, You use the app to connect your gateway to your home’s Wi-Fi.

Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Flume is like this. When you install the box, you strap it to your mechanical water meter. Somehow it figures out how your water is flowing through a meter just by being strapped to it. It’s magic. It seems to accurate +/- 5%. However, the measurement of water used indoor vs. outdoor is not accurate, since I don’t use water outdoors generally.

My Experience with Flume

I let it run for a day, and it told me it was likely a leak from a toilet. And it was correct. I isolated the toilet that was leaking and called my friend Mike The Plumber. Mike fixed it quickly. My water usage dropped by half the next month.

Flume also has decent analytics. It will allow you to graph water use by the minute(!), hour, day, week and month. If you like line and bar graphs, you’ll love this app. The notifications are great too. The flume app will tell you on days when you are using more than the normal amount of water. It will also email you as well. You get to choose. I find this super helpful.

In summary, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. This is something I live by in my personal and professional life. Flume helps me with managing my water usage. It also helps me lower my water bills as well. In my view, this only strengthens the need for smart water meters. It is also a great conservation tool. If you have questions, contact me here.

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What is the Santa Clara Valley Water District?

June 11, 2024 / Bill Roth / 3 Comments

One of the questions we receive frequently in this campaign is “What is the Santa Clara Valley Water District?”. Simply put, Santa Clara Valley Water District is Santa Clara County’s local integrated water services agency. This means that it has several specific roles involving water in our county as part of its core missions. For the most part, Santa Clara Valley Water District is the “water wholesaler” in the county. This means that it manages the county’s water resources, and then sells that water to entities that sell that water to you, like San Jose Water and the City of Santa Clara.

The Water District is more commonly known as Valley Water. It’s website is at http://valleywater.org/. There is a decent history of how Valley Water came to be on Wikipedia.

The Water District is unique among water agencies in that it has three principal goals: First, to supply water to the people of Santa Clara County; Second, to provide flood control for the county; Third, to protect and preserve the environment on land it owns. We’ll cover these in order.

Santa Clara Valley Water District supplies water to over 2 million residents and 15 cities in Santa Clara County, managing a vast network of infrastructure including 10 dams, reservoirs, 3 treatment plants, and over 150 miles of pipelines. They have a stated commitment to sustainability which extends to diverse water sources, including recycled water, surface water, and groundwater extraction from local aquifers. For more information on where Santa Clara Valley Water District gets its water, check out Where Does My Water Come From?.