Water Blogged

March 2025 marks the one-year anniversary of Tanya Moniz-Witten taking on the role of President of San Jose Water. To celebrate, Pal Hollywood sat down with Tanya to ask some of the questions SJW employees and customers may still want to know, including what Tanya thinks of SJW, working in water, and being back in the Bay Area. Stick around to the end to read Tanya’s reaction to an old secret of hers that an SJW employee uncovered! 

SJW recently placed in service a critical water main replacement project along Lochridge Drive, near the busy intersection of King and McKee Roads in San Jose.

Originally constructed in 1918, the Beardsley Intake has long served as a critical component of our raw water supply infrastructure, with a maximum capacity of 6.9 MGD provided primarily via releases from Lake Ranch. By 2024, years of use and exposure to severe weather had left the intake structure significantly damaged, prompting an essential modernization effort focused not only on operational resilience but on the safety of our operators who frequently visit the site, especially during storms.

We are excited to share that San Jose Water has won the prestigious 2024 North American Institute of Asset Management (IAM) Excellence Award for Digital Innovation at the annual conference, which was held in Denver!    

In a thrilling recent development for conservationists and biologists, the discovery of the elusive Santa Cruz kangaroo rat (Dipodomys venustus venustus) in the Upper Los Gatos Creek Watershed has sparked new efforts to protect and restore its habitat. This discovery, facilitated by UC Santa Cruz researchers and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space biologists, marks the first time since 1947 that the species has been documented in Santa Clara County.

SJW Employees Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of US citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.

For the month of August, SJW is celebrating Watershed Appreciation Month and we hope you’ll join us!

For the month of August, SJW is celebrating Watershed Appreciation Month and we hope you’ll join us!

For the month of August, SJW is celebrating Watershed Appreciation Month and we hope you’ll join us!

A watershed is an area of land that channels rainfall, snowmelt, and runoff into a common body of water. In fact, spanning from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the entire bay area is one big watershed!