Sustainable Fairfax

April 2010 Reservoir Report

April 2, 2010 by Sustainable Fairfax

SPRING RAINS CONTINUE TO EXCEED SEASONAL AVERAGES
Rainfall this year continues to exceed the average, with rain for the month of April measuring 8.24 inches at Lake Lagunitas. Rainfall in April 2009 was 1.27 inches, while average is 3.69 inches. Average May rainfall is 1.17 inches; May rainfall this year through the 20th is already 1.14 inches with the possibility of more rain in the forecast.

Here are year-to-date annual rainfall comparisons:
July 1, 2009 – May 20, 2010: 56.91 inches
July 1, 2008 – May 20, 2009: 42.93 inches
Average year to date: 51.60 inches

Reservoir levels are also above average. Current storage is 79,062 AF* (99 percent of capacity); average to date is 69,209 AF (87 percent of capacity).

Conserving water is a way of life and should continue whether we are in a drought or our reservoirs are at capacity.

Rainfall and reservoir updates are posted weekly on MMWD website.

Commonsense Coalition – Please Note Mailers from PG&E

March 1, 2010 by Sustainable Fairfax

If you’re in Marin or San Francisco, you’ve got a wall of junkmail coming at you from PG&E. Oh, beg pardon. You have a wall of junk coming at you from “The Commonsense Coalition.” This is a coalition of one, and that one is PG&E.

In teeny tiny letters, in ever more pale ink, you may be able to find the line on those mailers that says something about PacificGas&Electric. Or maybe you left your magnifying glass at home and you can’t find PG&E on there.

Regardless, these 100% PG&E mailers are everywhere, they’re expensive as heck, and they’re clearly meant to scare the pants off us. If we didn’t have brains in our heads, it might be hard to know what to do about it.

First, know that this is a straight out disinformation campaign. These mailers are packed with the same tired ol’ threats PG&E’s Joe Nation has been trotting out in council meetings (rebutted, again and again) since 2008. Some of them are the same threats (again, examined and rejected) used by PG&E to generate fear and confusion around San Joaquin’s CCA in a devastating disinformation campaign down there. As they’ve made clear to their shareholders, PG&E has one motive behind everything they throw at this: STOP the CCAs. Halt the threat to earnings.

It’s faux grassroots on a boardroom budget, with just that one simple goal: shut the competition down. PG&E knows Marin Clean Energy — if it can just survive PG&E’s onslaught — will succeed, and compete. And then replicate. Why else would they go to these extraordinary measures and $35 million dollar budgets to stop it?

Fairfax Water Conservation Pilot Project

January 23, 2010 by Sustainable Fairfax

Marin Municipal Water District Logo Update: Pilot in 2010

There has been much discussion about securing the water future for Marin County. MMWD is our main water district and through them we procure 75% of our water from our local watershed and import 25% of our water from outside the county, the average MMWD client uses 140 gallons of water per person, per day and plans are moving forward on a costly Desalination plant to meet a projected future demand and provide during drought. The conservation department and many concerned citizens believe we can live sustainably in our watershed and now it is time to put our money where our mouth is.

Fairfax has been selected by MMWD Conservation Department as just the right town for a pilot program promoting water conservation. Sustainable Fairfax will be will be the hub and main operators of the pilot. Water project staff and volunteers will be approaching every business, school and resident in Fairfax to see “How Far We Can Go” to reduce our water use through technology and behavior.The idea is to focus intensively on one community to increase water conservation to see if that is an effective model resulting in long-term water savings. Education and rebates will be brought to the community through a number of events, staffing at the Sustainability Center, and on a one on one basis.

Our Town Manager and Mayor have met with representatives from MMWD and Sustainable Fairfax to find ways the town can support this effort through modeling and possible resolutions or ordinances.

Marin Clean Energy Action Needed

March 26, 2009 by Sustainable Fairfax

Marin Clean Energy is on it’s way to becoming a reality in 2010! Eight towns and the County voted last fall to join together to set up our community based clean energy system. Now we’re into the nitty-gritty details and you can help all of Marin get the best Marin Clean Energy System we can have.

MCE has the potential to integrate energy efficiency and local power generation. Energy efficiency is the cheapest ‘clean energy’ available and we would create good local jobs. Public Goods Funds are available to Marin and we should make sure that we get the funding, because Marin Clean Energy can do better Energy Efficiency, Solar, and Low-income programs than PG&E.

Please email your MCE county representative and your MCE town councilor and say that we need to bring energy efficiency and local power generation front and center into all MCE proposals.

About Our Rain Garden

January 26, 2009 by Sustainable Fairfax

In 2005, when we began designing our Sustainable Backyard, Fairfax and San Anselmo got hit with the second 100-year flood in 25 years. We believe that climate change is causing extreme weather and raising the sea level, which only means more flooding for us.

What can we do? That is what we asked Geoff Hall and Kamala Bennet of Sentient Design, who were working with us to design a backyard that represented best practices. The said “Water Reclamation” What’s that? For us it meant re-guttering our small house with about 600 square foot roof. Then channeling that water into a 1000 gallon tank. And directing the overflow of the tank into our pond and then into two vernal ponds. Our pond is lined and permanent. Our vernal ponds or swales are unlined seasonal water features. Please check the read more section below to learn more about how you can plant a vernal pond.

Since we set up this system we have found that the first rain of the season fills our tank. We actually found that in an average rainfall year we will be routing 15,000 gallons of water. We have had visits from the Town Council, County Board of Supervisors, FEMA and the Dept. of Homeland Security, MMWD, MCSTOPPP, SPAWN, Regenerative Design Institute, and numerous citizens. We received funding from Marin County Board of Supervisors to make this work possible.

Our system not only demonstrates how to help prevent flooding, it also creates unique microclimates, cleans the water before returning it to our creek systems, it helps to recharge our local ground water system, and we have 1000 gallons of water to use during the summer for topping up our pond or emergencies. In permaculture the water mantra is Slow it, Spread it, and Sink it.

Visit our backyard to learn more. Or check out this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyzNMzk4W0

We also have a rain_garden_brochure for you to view.

Visit the SPAWN site for more info on rainwater harvesting.