Climate change poses challenges for reservoir management
EVERETT — It used to be much easier to manage the county’s vital water supply that comes from Spada Lake, but changing weather patterns have made that job much trickier for the Snohomish Public Utility District.
While managing a reservoir with numerous functions has always required careful monitoring, forecasting and collaboration, climate change has narrowed the margins for error, several staff members said during a recent interview.
PUD employees emphasized that while climate change presents additional obstacles for utility districts, they believe Snohomish PUD has and continues to be at the forefront of utilizing available science and technology to provide customers with reliable, clean and affordable energy.
“We were one of the first electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest to explicitly include climate change modeling in our long-term plans. We started back in 2019 using climate change modeling from the University of Washington,” said Garrison Marr, the PUD’s power supply manager. “We’ve been tracking, thinking about our customers.”
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/climate-change-poses-challenges-for-reservoir-management/