In response to letters concerning the proposed emergency reservoir at Seminary Oaks Park, I would like to clarify some important information about the project.
The city of Menlo Park Water District serves about one-third of Menlo Park’s water users, who are divided into eastern and western service areas. The eastern service area has no storage tanks or reservoir, while the western service area has two reservoirs with a total emergency capacity of 5.5 million gallons. The two areas are physically separated from each other, and do not share distribution mains for their water systems. Cal Water provides water service by an additional, separate distribution system to the customers between the eastern and western service areas.
The Menlo Park water district purchases all of its water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), which has acknowledged that its system is vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes. A reliability study done by SFPUC in 2000 showed that in a worst-case scenario, Menlo Park could be without water for up to 60 days. Previous studies have shown that periods of extended drought could also impact the system.
The California Department of Health Services (DHS) recommends that communities maintain emergency water storage equivalent to average usage amounts over a period of at least eight hours and up to two full days. That equates to a reservoir of between 1.3 and 6.8 million gallons for Menlo Park, given seasonal variations. Another 0.6 million gallons is added to those volumes for fire flows, which could be particularly important after an earthquake. How long this storage actually lasts depends on numerous factors such as season, the amount of water in the reservoir when an emergency occurs and the numbers and types of customers who are using the water.
The proposed project includes a groundwater well to provide water supply. Groundwater could be disinfected and input directly into the water mains, and fed into the reservoir for storage during off-peak usage hours (i.e., at night). State regulations restrict the use of untreated groundwater for domestic use to five days or less, so that groundwater could only be relied upon as an ongoing source if full treatment facilities were provided. The reservoir is intended as short-term emergency use and the groundwater well is for longer-term use after the reservoir storage is depleted. The combination of storage capacity in the reservoir and groundwater can provide significant benefits to water customers in an emergency.
Recommendations for a final reservoir size will depend on a number of factors. While a large reservoir is desirable, a larger size has considerable financial implications for construction, land acquisition and operating costs that must be weighed against the impact on rate-payers. Ultimately, the amount of stored water needed for the system will be determined by the community’s willingness to accept the risk of not having water in an emergency versus the cost of providing storage. The final project, once designed, would be funded through the water rates of customers and the water capital fund, which currently has a fund balance of approximately $9 million.
Interested residents are urged to check the Menlo Park Web site at www.menlopark.org. Go to the project pages and follow the link to water projects for more information, including maps, studies and more. The Menlo Park City Council is tentatively scheduled to consider potential alternatives to a reservoir and well at Seminary Oaks Park at its August 26 meeting at 7 p.m. For more information, contact the Menlo Park Public Works Department at 330-6740.
Lisa Ekers is an engineering services manager with the city of Menlo Park
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