The Indicators Report was first made available to the public at an April 10 press event. The report will be widely available to the public begining at the annual Progress Seminar on April 12 in Monterey. Hosted by the Redwood City/San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce, the Progress Seminar brings together the leaders of San Mateo County, making it a prime opportunity for SSMC to share the most recent findings on the health of our County.

This year’s report highlighted some of the long-term concerns of water supply and demand. As noted in the San Mateo County Times and The Examiner, the county’s water supply faces challenges in the coming years, partly because demand is projected to increase some 20 percent by 2030. Because the county mostly relies on one source for water—a source that is approaching its maximum output—proactive conservation efforts will become imperative to meet rising demand.

Other indicators in the report show negative trends in agricultural production value, child care, the county’s ecological footprint and housing affordability. Positive trends include air quality, carbon dioxide emissions, crime, green buildings and the reduction of solid waste.

The report also revealed faulty statistics from the government on the County’s use of pesticides. As first reported in The Examiner, the report showed that 105,000 pounds of the chemical Oryzalin, a weed killer, was used in San Mateo County in 2006, a startling increase from 1,900 pounds in 2005. “The reason for this growth is unclear,” the Indicators Report says. County officials were baffled at the discrepancy. In reaction to The Examiner’s story, the state Department of Pesticide Regulation realized it had mis-characterized the data. In a follow-up article in The Examiner, Veda Federighi, DPR assistant director for external affairs, said, “Many errors result when a decimal point is misplaced, or when the use is reported in gallons of product used when it actually was ounces….The latter occurred in this instance.”

The mix-up in the data was the main reason the Indicators Report showed that total use in pesticide usage shot up from 275,000 pounds in 2005 to 365,000 in 2006. After DPR officials checked its data, revised numbers showed that the amount of Oryzalin used in 2006 was actually 1,507 pounds, according to The Examiner article. SSMC staff has revised page 39 of the initial report to reflect the correct data on the pesticides indicator. CLICK HERE to download it.