In the beautiful Sierra Nevada, a pristine river named Mokelumne breaks free. Carrying snowmelt and rain to the west, its ultimate destination is the Sacramento/ San Joaquin Delta, and then the San Francisco Bay. But well before it reaches its natural outlet, EBMUD’s 345-foot-tall, 1,337-foot-long Pardee Dam walls-off the water’s path and fills in Pardee Reservoir. From Pardee Reservoir, the East Bay drinks.
EBMUD’s three primary aqueducts connect directly to Pardee Reservoir, located at the confluence between Amador and Calaveras counties and collecting water from a 577-square-mile watershed. These tremendous aqueducts, named after the Mokelumne River, can carry as much as 325 million gallons of water over 90 miles to 1.4 million EBMUD customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Once in the East Bay, this mountain water is stored in large reservoirs—San Pablo, Upper San Leandro and Briones, along with rainwater that falls directly in the East Bay.
Every minute of every day, EBMUD treats Sierra snowmelt fortified with local runoff to the highest standards set by the state and federal government. We send it through an integrated system of pipes that extend underground for 4,200 miles throughout every city, neighborhood and street in our East Bay service area. The water travels from large distribution pipes into smaller service lines that connect to plumbing in hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. Every faucet in and outside of your home brings you that high-quality mountain-fresh water the moment you need it.
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While this is the basic path that our water takes, there is so much more to learn. EBMUD provides educational resources and offers speaker presentations. For materials for your classroom, visit ebmud.com/store/teacher-materials. To request a speaker for your class or organization, visit ebmud.com/about-us/community-activities/request-speaker. EBMUD also is a proud sponsor of our next generation of water wizards. Once again this year, EBMUD will contribute $600 for Water and Wastewater Awards at the Alameda and Contra Costa County Science Fairs. To learn more about how to participate, visit www.acsef.org or www.ccpartnership.org/science-fair |