Alameda Water Not Apparently Threatened by Rim Fire

Although San Franciscans are worried about potential contamination of their water supply due to the Rim Fire, there would appear to be no immediate such threat to supplies for Alameda.

Fresh water is supplied to Alameda residents by East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), and according to that agency’s website, it derives its water from “a network of reservoirs, aqueducts, treatment plants, and distribution facilities that extends from its principal water source, the Mokelumne River Basin,” far north of Yosemite Park, and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, currently threatened by the Rim Fire, which has grown to some 149,000 acres.

A San Francisco Public Utilities Commission press release yesterday said that the fire had not yet reached the O’Shaughnessy Dam, the structure that created the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies water for 2.6 million customers in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area.

To date, there has been no impact to water quality and deliveries from the reservoir, although authorities are continually monitoring water quality.

Eighty-five percent of San Francisco’s water comes from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.