While homeowners are being asked to save water, the Public Utilities Commission dumped millions of gallons of water from the Crystal Creek Dam on the Peninsula.
Most of the water is from the Hetch Hetchy system. The rest is run-off from December’s storm.
“We don’t like to lose the water but obviously water systems do use water to test the equipment and prove capacity,” said.Alison Kastama with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
The commission says the state requires the valves on the dam be tested in case of an emergency.
“These valves are used when we have heavy rain events, flooding," said Kastama. "We might need to reduce the res levels so we can capture more rain and reduce flooding downstream.”
Downstream, technicians with US Geological Survey gathered information and studied the capacity of the San Mateo creek.
The faster the water is moving the bigger the weight. water flow is measured in cubic feet per second. Yesterday the creek measured at 2. On Thursday: 322.
In total, the amount of water released is equivalent to nearly three million showers at home -- what many would agree is an unfortunate loss during an extreme drought.
