Scott River Watershed Council
City of Etna's water - Etna Creek
The City of Etna provides services to approximately
400 household, along with numerous businesses, schools, churches, parks and a pool.
Water is a key element to life and the City of Etna values the essential role it plays in the overall health of its residents, friends and visitors.
The City of Etna's water comes from Etna Creek documented in the Scott River Adjudication, as shown above. The City's right includes the right to 2.40 cubic feet per second (cfs) and is a first priority of this schedule. The full Scott River Adjudication can be found by clicking here.
Drought 2020
Like much of the Scott River
watershed, Etna Creek is a snow- fed system. The United States Forest Service have been preforming snow surveys within the basin area since 1951. The chart to the right is a summary of these efforts for the past 12 years and reported out in water content as of May 1st. This gives us the ability to look at snow levels and water content year after year. Unfortunately, things are not looking favorable for the 2020 year.
As a result, the United States Drought Monitoring has also identified much of Siskiyou County, including the Etna Creek watershed, as a "D3 - Extremely Drought" going into June. To give context about the 2020 drought, below are maps for other severe drought in recent years.
City of Etna's Water Infrastrucure
Etna's water is taken from a division that is known as Etna City Water Works. This water is piped to a storage facility that is located at the west edge of the city.
There is approximately 525 gallons of storage and during the summer, at the height of water use, the City's usage is averaged at 880,000 per day (according to City of Etna's Public Water's Department during a site tour given on April 27, 2020).
Every Drop Counts
Let’s Reduce Our Use Together!
Consider joining the Every Drop Counts challenge, by using these strategies, to preserve Etna’s precious water source during the coming months.
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Do all outdoor watering before 10:00am and after 6:00pm
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Shower with a bucket & use water on flowers
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Turn the water off when brushing your teeth
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Fix any leaky faucet or hoses
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Irrigate using timers & try not to over water
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Leave grass 3” high, encouraging deeper roots so you can water less
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Use a broom to clean patios/decks
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Wash full loads of clothes & dishes
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Reduce showers to 5 minutes
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Use mulch to keep your soil moist
The site www.saveourwater.com shares practical ways to save water at home.
Check out Etna Creek Flow
During May 2020, a flow station was installed by SRWC staff to help the City of Etna better understand the flows associated with Etna Creek in hopes of encouraging better water use and stewardship. The graph above shows the flow within the creek shown in cubic feet per second (cfs). The graph to the left is the only known data was from 2008.