GrokSurf's San Diego

[News release from the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department
Media contact: Arian Collins 619-527-3121]

National Weather Service Honors City’s El Capitan Reservoir for 75 Years of Providing Weather Information

SAN DIEGO – For 75 years, City of San Diego staff at El Capitan Reservoir has been submitting weather readings to the National Weather Service. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently paid tribute to that accomplishment by bestowing an Honored Institution Award for El Capitan Reservoir. City reservoirs are managed by the Water Operations Branch of the City’s Public Utilities Department.

In addition, Garry Norris, Reservoir Maintenance Supervisor – North, and Aleda Markham, Reservoir Keeper at El Capitan, received Certificates of Appreciation from the National Weather Service’s San Diego Forecast Office for outstanding effort to maintain the Cooperative Observer Program at El Capitan.

“We have a long tradition of serving the San Diego community through water and wastewater services, and many related activities and programs,” said Roger Bailey, City Public Utilities Director. “We are very proud that our efforts in providing weather readings for the National Weather Service have been recognized.”

One of the City’s nine impounding reservoirs, El Capitan Reservoir was created in 1935 with the completion of El Capitan Dam. That same year the reservoir was connected to the City’s water system via the El Capitan Pipeline. A weather station was established at the reservoir in 1936. Located approximately 30 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, on the San Diego River, El Capitan has the largest capacity in the City reservoir system. When full, the reservoir has 1,562 surface acres, a maximum water depth of 197 feet, and 22 miles of shoreline. El Capitan Reservoir has a water storage capacity of 112,806.9 acre feet.

Water Operations Branch of the Public Utilities Department is dedicated to providing customers with a safe and reliable water supply, and quality customer service in an environmentally sensitive manner.

In addition to the reservoirs, Water Operations is responsible for overseeing more than 3,280 miles of pipeline in our distribution system, managing three treatment plants, operating 29 distribution reservoirs and standpipes, pumping water across about 130 different pressure zones with the assistance of 49 pump stations, maintaining more than 270,730 metered service connections and more than 24,000 fire hydrants, delivering more than 200 million gallons of water per day to customers, and serving more than 1.3 million customers in the cities of San Diego, Del Mar, Coronado and Imperial Beach.