Water managers detail 'dire' drought
b'April 14, 2021 \\u2014 Supervisor Glenn McGourty organized a water informational session at this week\\u2019s board of Supervisors meeting, calling on the board to come up with an emergency response to the drought.\\nWith Lake Mendocino lower than it\\u2019s ever been, Redwood Valley Water District is shutting off irrigation services to its 200 agricultural customers on April 19. Jared Walker, the district general manager, is expecting to reduce water to fifty gallons per person per day for critical public health and safety water use only.\\nDon Seymour, a principal engineer with Sonoma County Water Agency, said the current drought is set to surpass 1976-77 as the "drought of record."\\nSean White, the director of water and sewer for the City of Ukiah, says the city plans to rely heavily on groundwater and produce about a thousand acre feet from a recycled water system that was completed in 2019.\\nWater is tight on the coast, too. Fort Bragg received just 17 inches of rain this year, a little over a third of its average annual precipitation. John Smith, the city\\u2019s director of public works, says the local water source is not as easily measured as Lake Mendocino.\\nThe Mendocino County Resource Conservation District is kicking off a campaign to save water, but McGourty brought up a lot of unanswered questions, including the need for a Board strategy to meet the crisis, when conservation should start, what the parameters should be, and how to regulate trucked water.'