It was great to have the Public Information Officer for the Carmichael District, Chris Nelson with us to give us an update of the activities of the District. It was also in keeping with Rotary's monthly theme "Water and Sanitation" that we focus on water. Chris has been with the Carmichael Water Dept. for 22 years. Chris mentioned that it has been some time since he has addressed our Rotary Club. Actually last time it was during the long draught that we had a few year's back. Now we are in the COVID crisis. Chris said he would divide his talk into three topics, Overview, Past Projects, and Current Conditions. He showed us a few short videos and some slides on water topics. He said the main source for the Carmichael Water District is the American River (about 75-80% and they serve 37,000 people every day. The 2nd source is ground water and wells figure in for 20-25%. He talked about the filtration of ground water from the American River and the 3 Ranney collector systems that were deployed in the 1950s. He mentioned the necessary job of the maintenance of the equipment. Then there is the La Vista booster system (1971) and the Bajamont water treatment plant of 2001 which produces 22 million gal. of clean water, and that in 2021, they will break ground on a new plant to be finished in 600 days. They, of course, are reliant on a good snow pack in the Sierras and currently is 60% of average, but this is better than last year at this time. Being optimistic, Chris is hoping for a miracle March like what happened in 1992 when at this time, the beginning of March, the snow pack was at 14% and then it snowed and snowed and after March it ballooned to 85%! Chris ended his talk by explaining how water saving can help with keeping water abundant, with eliminating water loss and with more judicious use of water - through water saving nozzles - shower heads, etc. Our President David had little to add about our water issues, but he did elicit a positive response from Chris by telling him that a book will be donated (maybe on a water topic) , in his honor, to the Carmichael Library, subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library. Some of the interesting slides presented are below. |
