Water Blogged

Image

SJW has been providing high quality, reliab

On a warm morning in June, Bruce Williams, the great-grandson of Edward Williams, who had been president of San Jose Water in the late 1800s, joined current SJW President Andy Gere to visit Bruce’s great-grandfather’s namesake: Williams Reservoir.

The beautiful and pristine reservoir was built when Edward was president of San Jose Water – thus its moniker.

Inflation has affected all of us – everything from soaring gas prices to basic groceries. Consumer prices were up 8.6% in May over 2021, according to the US Department of Labor. But have you thought about how inflation affects the water industry— the cost of supplies and an impact to key infrastructure projects?

There are over 8,000 acoustic, leak-detecting sensors installed on hydrants in San Jose Water’s distribution system. The initial deployment of 2,000 of these sensors used 3G to communicate changes in acoustic noise — signifying a potential leak. As all cell carriers are phasing out 3G by the end of 2022, SJW proactively replaced these with newer, 4G nodes this year. However, disposing of 2,000 sensors had to be done carefully and thoughtfully.

You may be wondering why we are talking about April results in June. It takes about two months to gather the data and for usage numbers to be released.

Unfortunately, April showers never really arrived to bring May flowers. With little precipitation and warm weather, conservation continued to be a challenge. In April 2022, customers used 2.4% more water than during the same period in 2019.

While not perfect, things are trending in the right direction. The March 2022, water use figures showed a 28% increase in usage. So, a significant improvement in April.

SJW President and COO Andy Gere was recently inducted into the University of Connecticut Academy of Distinguished Engineers alongside notable honorees such as a former economic and technology policy advisor in the Obama Administration and a retired senior executive at ExxonMobil. We had the opportunity to sit down with Andy to ask him a bit about his time at UConn and how it sparked his lifetime of dedication to the water utilities industry.

Call for conservation continues

2022 is off to the driest start for San Jose in recent history.

A now third year of the California drought is deepening after a promising winter start. A very wet December followed by a dry January, February and March means conservation has never been more important.

In February 2022, water usage climbed 20% over the same time period in 2019. Valley Water, the water wholesaler for Santa Clara County, has asked residents to cut back water use by 15% from 2019 levels.

You may be wondering why we are talking about March results in May. It takes about two months to gather the data and for usage numbers to be released.

The dry start to 2022 continued into March with only .36 inches of rain falling during the first three months of the year. A typical year of rainfall during the same period is 7.45 inches of rain. Truth is, it can be tough to conserve during the winter months. Water usage tends to be primarily indoors. This means cutting back usage in showers, toilet flushing, dishwashing, and laundry for most residences.

Image

When two eight-year-old boys learned about their