Water Reliability

Zone 7 imports 80 to 90 percent of its water from the State Water Project, traveling from Oroville Dam through the South Bay Aqueduct. That is a single corridor exposed to earthquake, drought, and climate volatility. The 2024 collapse of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir expansion was a real setback. Reliability now depends on diversification.

A diversified portfolio

No water agency should depend on a single conveyance for 80 percent of its supply. Stronger groundwater banking, modernized stormwater capture, support for Northern California storage projects like Sites Reservoir, and a clear-eyed evaluation of regional desalination and potable reuse all belong in the mix.

Use the basin we have

The Livermore Valley Groundwater Basin already provides about 10 percent of annual supply, and Zone 7 holds roughly 198,000 acre-feet banked in Kern County as a reserve. As PFAS treatment expands and well capacity comes back online, the basin can carry more of the load and reduce dependence on a fragile import corridor.

Capture what falls here

Zone 7's flood-control channels and the Chain of Lakes already serve a dual purpose: managing storm flows and recharging the basin. Maximize that. Every acre-foot we capture in a wet year is an acre-foot we do not need to import in a dry one.

The Delta Conveyance decision

The largest single reliability decision in front of the board is whether to commit roughly $350 million in Zone 7 ratepayer dollars to the Delta Conveyance Project. The seismic case for protecting our import supply is real, and so are the freshwater, ecological, and cost questions raised by communities downstream of the proposed intakes. This decision deserves its own analysis. Read my full position on the Delta Conveyance Project →