Santa Cruz County Declares Drought

3 new information now on the lack of water! it’s been 52 days since the central coast saw a drop of rain!! and after governor jerry brown declared a “state of emergency” — counties here on the central coast are following suit! 3 our drinking water supplies are **at risk… ground water wells may **run dry… and the san lorenzo river is at it’s **lowest january level, ever recorded. ### in the face of these worsening drought conditions, all eight water agencies in santa cruz county are announcing their *plan of *action to handle our very dry year… 3 central coast news reporter *cassandra arsenault was there today… and joins us now to explain what *each agency is doing to conserve.. 3 a long term solution to the lack of water resources. marc, all eight agencies that gathered today all had one thing in common: voluntary water conservation is beginning, and mandatory water rationing is not far behind. but the bigger problem here is finding a long term solution to the water shortage 3 *trt 1:29outcue:already show evidence of seawater intrusion.:*10-15 san lorenzo river is almost at a standstill today. this is video from just two weeks ago, same river…less water. it’s obvious santa cruz county is in trouble.5:54:25 we don’t get water from anybody else in the state we are dependent on what falls from the sky, and unfortunately there hasn’t been much of that lately. that’s why all eight water agencies in santa cruz county for the short term are having people voluntarily conserve water.5:46:10 its nice to think that we can do it with all conservation. but you have to look further what about 40,50, years. you can only conserve so much. you have to be looking for a supplemental supply.dr. tom lahue, president of the board of soquel creek water district, says their grounwater basin is so low that it will take them 20 years with a 35% cutback in water use to get the water they need. so a supplemental water supply is beyond necessary.5:46:54 we have been working with the city of santa cruz to work on this regional joint desalination 3 project and that’s on the back burner now and we can’t count on that.and if they can’t find a supplemental supply in the immediate future, there only option is mandatory rationing. 5:47:20 im hoping thats not the only solution bc that impacts peoples’ lives beyond waht is reasonable conservation perhaps and like i said in the long term you have to look way down the road. but the clock is ticking.. 5:49:18 id on’t know if people realize we are monitoring wells in the outskirts of aptos–they already 3 show evidence of seawater intrusion. 3 something interesting i learned today — water rationing costs a lot of money to get the word to the public, enforce the rationing rules, and get this: if you are conserving more water, the water agency gets less money…that means in the end you’re bill will go up down the road anyway