Where does our water come from? Do you know? Have you ever thought about it when you turn your faucet on? You many not even know that we are in the middle of the worst drought we have had in years. There are a couple of reservoirs in California and all of them are extremely low right now. But which one of them does San Jose’s water come from?

The local water comes from the Guadalupe watershed or the Coyote watershed. The Guadalupe watershed is a 170 square mile area that drains from Eastern Santa Cruz Mountains to Loma Prieta summit. This water from the Guadalupe River goes to Los Gatos, San Jose, Campbell, and Santa Clara.

The Coyote watershed provides water to the Santa Clara District. Sixteen creeks drain into this watershed and it is 322 square mile area. It is the county’s largest watershed extending from the valley floor all the way close to Mt. Hamilton.

Though, the watersheds we have are not our only source of receiving water through. There are percolation ponds that restore ground water. And even though it may sound old fashioned, we have wells. We also use recycled water or even buy water from up state. We find ourselves buying water from up North more and more these days because of the drought we are currently in and our watersheds and reservoirs are running dangerously low.

We have to do all we can to preserve our water, because eventually we will run out of water to buy. At this point, it is not a choice, it is a necessity that people fail at. Simple things like turning off the water as we brush our teeth, taking shorter showers, and turning sprinklers off when it rains will all help to conserve our water.