The Good News: Our community reduced its water consumption during the month of July by 16%. Way to go! We still need to reduce even more, the goal is 20%, but this shows the dedication and mindfulness of our neighbors to help make a difference. Thank you!

The Not So Good News: Moody Gulch, the source of our water, is flowing at about 58% of its usual capacity, and that capacity will most likely continue to decline over the next couple of warm months. That leaves us with a gap of 42% that is being filled by the Montevina Pipeline (SJW). While it is good that we have an alternate source of water, it is an additional cost to the budget. Based on using San Jose Water (SJW) at a rate of about 9 gpm, it costs our community $2,725 per month at this point. If we don’t get rain until December, and we continue at this rate over the next 5 months we will have spent $13,620 extra for water!

The Promising News: There is work underway to re-establish the Los Gatos Creek as an additional source of water. This has many hurdles to overcome but it is being actively pursued, finally. The other promising news is that a project has begun to improve the water transmission piping, which will increase the transfer rates of moving water to the storage tanks, thus filling the tanks more efficiently. While being good news for both items, we as a community must conserve, conserve.

ACTION item for the entire Community – Continue with the good conservation efforts but KEEP REDUCING. We saved at a rate of 16% this past month – let’s get to 20% by the next Board Meeting, September 9th. We can do this!

There are water saving tips on the website and the Board will continue to send tips via the water bill and the Mailchimp email. If you have not signed up for email updates on important community issues, go to: www.chemeketapark.org/subscribe/ .

STAY IN TOUCH – through the website: www.chemeketapark.org or through the newsletter with the link above.