Thanks for the informative article. Good reporting.

It's too bad the usage data isn't further broken down in the Bear Gulch district. Given it serves Atherton, Menlo Park, etc. I'd hazard a guess that of the homes in the Bear Gulch district, Atherton homes use far and away more water than anyone else in the district. One only need drive through Atherton to see why. One acre lots, fully landscaped and all lush. IMHO all residents of Atherton that want to have that much landscaping should be required to put in a well or, even better, be required to plant drought tolerant plants.

I live in Woodside, up by Skyline on a 1+ acre lot. Our outside water use is pretty much zero. We have some potted plants on our decks, but no watering of the grounds.

There's no surprise here. Larger lots in more expensive areas use more water. The question is what to do about it. If one can afford a $3M house with about $50k a year in property tax alone, what pricing structure would induce water conservation? I'm guessing it's have to be a lot higher than current pricing.

As a Director of the West Bay Sanitary District we are proud that in partnership with Sharon Heights Golf Club we have built a 600,000 gallon per day waste recycling plant. That means Sharon Heights uses 600K fewer gallons per day of valuable drinking water to maintain their facility.

the club is to be commended for spending the money to help relieve the ongoing drought in California.

Roy Thiele-Sardina

Roy:

Are they further processing the water? I thought they irrigated using spray sprinklers. It was my understanding one couldn't use that water to irrigate in that way? I'm probably wrong. When did it change?

@Menlo+Voter,

the water is processed enough for irrigation. in fact SLAC will use it for cooling in the winter. it's just not potable.

we are looking at another large recycling plant in the M1 next.

Roy

Thanks for the info Roy. Anything that can keep that water from flowing to the bay is great. In fact, I think the state should mandate that as much reclaimed water as possible be used for irrigation or anything else it could be used for.

Purple piping could be run to all new subdivisions and water be used to feed toilets and irrigation.

@Menlo+Voter

WBSD are running Purple Pipe (to carry recycled water) every time we do a large scale pipe repair, upgrade, or replacement.

the current pipe upgrade on Ravenswood is a good example.

unfortunately it is NOT CHEAP to run the pipe. FWIW it currently costs $2M per mile to lay pipe in the bay area.

Roy