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Santa Clara County Residents Avoid Mandatory Water Conservation

SANTA CLARA COUNTY (KCBS) – There's some good news for residents in Santa Clara County as late season rain and an increased allotment from the state means that water officials are not calling for mandatory conservation.

Santa Clara Valley Water District spokesperson Marty Grimes said that getting an extra 10 percent allotment from the California water project has helped matters.

KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:

"Just a little bit more water that we'll have this summer and going into next year in case it's dry," Grimes said. "That's comforting since we had such a dry year up until the last part of March."

Grimes said that the last series of storms also helped to increase the Sierra snowpack and added to the local reservoirs.

"And locally, some of our reservoirs did get some inflow, so that's good as well," he said.

As a result, water officials are not calling for mandatory conservation this year. Local resident Carly Baker said that people should still try to use less water.

"I think they need to be educated about conserving just as much as they were when we were in a drought year," she said. "I'll definitely still conserve."

Water officials still stress that conservation is a way of life because no one knows what Mother Nature has in store for the area.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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