Earlier this year, we discovered that we were mysteriously losing tens of thousands of gallons of water from our storage tanks at East Brother Island. We depend on winter rains to leave us with 70,000 gallons of water, 50,000 in a cistern and 20,000 in a redwood water tank, to get us through the dry season. We looked and looked and finally discovered that someone had opened a valve that feeds fresh water into our wastewater system! The reason for the valve installation is lost in the sands of time, but our best guess is someone thought it might be necessary to flush out the drain line. So, about 30,000 gallons of our critical fresh water supply literally went down the drain.

We started looking for a water delivery. The last time we had to do this was at least 20 years ago, and the vendor at that was not willing to serve us currently. At that time, we paid only $3,000 for a 50,000 gallon delivery. Thanks to a little help from our friends, we located marine Express, Inc, who was willing to help, but they are currently limited to 6,000 gallon per delivery at a cost of $6,500. But we are down to 9,000 gallons, and at a “burn rate” of at least 3,000 gallons a week, we would go dry in early August, and we had to act.

Today, Marine Express is offloading 6,000 gallons that will get us through August, but we will need more until it finally rains, maybe not until October or even December.

East Brother Light Station is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that maintains and operates East Brother Light Station as a unique bed and breakfast inn. It is always exciting, and we are always looking for more (and especially younger) volunteers and board members.