Tag: water use guidelines

Water Use Rules and Guidelines Have Been Updated

At the quarterly board meeting last Saturday, the Board of Directors updated the rules and guidelines.

Effective today, the restrictions that were in place post-Tamarack Fire have been rolled back.

You can download a copy of the current rules and guidelines from our Important Documents page.

A couple items of note:

  • Since pressure or power washing can put a signifcant load on the system depending on time of day, it is not allowed w/o specific permission. Please fill out the form on our Contact Us page and someone will contact you.
  • Rain events affect the processing of water. When the turbidity-levels get too high in the creek we have to switch over to well water and that lessens the amount of water that can be produced.

It’s likely, based on drought predictions for CA, that more restrictive rules and guidelines will need to be put in place.

We will make that determination at the June meeting, and encourage your attendance at that meeting, as well as all meetings.

Email us at markleevillewatercompany@gmail.com in order to RSVP for any meeting, or if you have any questions.

Limited Landscape Watering Allowed Starting Wednesday!

First and foremost, THANK YOU for following the previously issued restrictions and helping to conserve. You’ve done an amazing job!

Because of your efforts we’re able to allow for
some landscape watering starting this coming week.

A huge thank you also to Kris Hartnett, one of our directors; past-president, Steve Martin; and Buck McLelland, our operator, for their efforts in keeping things flowing. Be sure to say thanks or buy them a beer when you see ’em!

Landsape watering guidelines. Note that the plan recognizes full weeks only, that it resets each new calendar month and there is NO watering allowed other than weeks 1-4.

For a copy of these guidelines, a better understanding of the details behind this change, and other information, like contact numbers for questions, please go to our Important Documents page and download a copy of our Fire Related Mandatory Conservation Plan (under “Notices and Forms”).

Copies of the plan are also available at the Markleeville Post Office.

Stay safe, stay aware and keep conserving!

Thank you,

Your MWC Team

Ps. Big kudos and thanks to those Members who joined us yesterday at our Board Meeting. Your interest and participation is MUCH APPRECIATED!

Deeper Reductions in Outdoor Water Use May Be Coming Soon

Hello Markleeville Water Company Members

Thank you for helping get us this far into a summer of record drought!

Stream flows, our main water source, are rapidly declining. This means even deeper reductions in outdoor water use may be coming soon. The MWC Board won’t impose them a day sooner than they’re needed. But on that day, you will find a notice on your front door and the reductions in outdoor water use it calls for will be mandatory. This post is to let you know ahead of time.

Adhering to the existing water conservation guidelines may help delay or prevent additional restrictions.

If imposed, reductions will be mandatory. They will conform to the MWC Bylaws, and penalties for noncompliance will be applied according to the Bylaws.

A letter has been sent to Corporation members along with the July water bill with more information on water use restrictions.  

The current water conservation standards and a copy of the letter can be found on our Important Documents page.

Water – It’s a Serious Subject! Especially this Summer

As you can see from the above image, we’re way below normal this year in terms of snow water equivalent.

You should have recently received our Water Use Rules and Guidelines, as a reminder to conserve, and most importantly as a reminder that we’re all in it together. 

Your Board of Directors has had several conversations about our “water-present,” and future, and continues to discuss the subject and plan accordingly.

Members are encouraged to join the discussion, attend meetings and provide input. Please see our previous post for upcoming meeting dates and times and how you can participate. 

In the meantime, we appreciate your water-conservation help.

It’s up to all of us to do the little things, and be good water stewards!

Recent Goings-on at the Markleeville Water Company

Since it’s been awhile since our last post, we thought we’d provide an update in several areas. Here you go!

Operational Meetings & Board Meetings

We held several weekly meetings (the first one was April 1), as we mentioned in this post, and thankfully we didn’t have any emergencies to address. The extra communication that took place was necessary early on but now it isn’t. The systems put in place by our Operator, Buck McLelland, and Kris Hartnett, one of our directors, have paid, and continue to pay, dividends. Buck and Kris communicate daily and anything that needs to be handled is done so quickly and efficiently.  So, we have discontinued the weekly meetings BUT are still holding our monthly meetings (virtually still at this point, thanks to Zoom). Remember, members are welcome to attend. Just email us at markleevillewatercompany@gmail.com for the meeting details. We meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month starting at 8:30 a.m.

Grant Progress

Work is progressing on the planning grant funded by the State of California Division of Financial Assistance (DFA) program; part of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program. Our consultant, West Yost Associates, submitted a draft of the Preliminary Engineering Report on May 15th. Once finalized, this report with be submitted to the State for approval of the recommended project. Once approved, environmental review and engineering design will begin. The primary objectives of the undertaking are to replace aging, failure-prone distribution piping and to implement distribution system changes intended to increase turnover of stored water as well as reductions in the incidence of disinfection byproduct exceedances. Operational changes over the past few years have already reduced these exceedances considerably, so the top priority of the project will be replacing those pipelines. This is a long-term effort, as you know, so continue to stay tuned for further updates.

Generator Progress

Unfortunately, we have not been able to finish the install of the generator due to other, more pressing priorities. We have poured the pad and secured the generator to it. We’ve also gotten the propane tank installed and the electrical is almost completed. Finishing this project remains high on our list, especially in light of fire season, and we hope to have it operational soon.

Water Usage

Unfortunately, due to the dry winter, and per the California Drought Early Warning System, Alpine Co. is in the midst of a moderate drought. Because of this, we ask that you continue conserving water where you can. We also want to remind you that our Water Use Rules & Guidelines (snippet below) remain in effect and can be viewed in their entirety by clicking here.

  • Landscape watering is allowed at even-numbered physical addresses only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, any time between 6 and 10 AM and between 6 and 10 PM.
  • Landscape watering is allowed at odd-numbered physical addresses only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, any time between 6 and 10 AM and between 6 and 10 PM.
  • Landscape watering is NOT allowed on Sundays in order to give our finished water tanks time to refill/replenish.
  • Total landscape watering time is allowed up to two hours per day.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority has a detailed “Assigned-Day Watering” page which we used as a guide for developing our Rules & Guidelines. Click here to check it out as it has some water saving tips and other relevant articles.

Oh, and by the way, if you are planning on doing any pressure washing at your home, which is allowed per our Water Use Rules & Guidelines, please give us a heads up and keep in mind that your pressure washing unit should be turned off when it’s not in use.

Thank you for being a member! We appreciate you continuing to be a good water steward and wish you, and your families and friends, good health. Continue to stay safe!

An Update Regarding Turbidity and Water Treatment

First of all we’d like to thank you for being water-wise and conserving where you can. Because of your efforts, our water consumption was down during the month of May!

Just before the Memorial Day holiday we were able to switch from well water back to creek water as treatment was again possible.

However, we want to caution you that due to variable and extended snow melt, turbidity may limit water production yet again, thereby forcing us back to well water. If that happens, we’ll let you know.

In the meantime please continue your conservation efforts and be sure to familiarize yourself with our Water Use Rules & Guidelines, which can be downloaded directly from our “Important Documents” page.

You’ll find it under “Notices and Forms” towards the bottom of the page.

Thank you!