Sonoma County Water Agency officials have inflated a rubber dam on the Russian River to help ensure the drinking water supply to about 600,000 residents of Sonoma and Marin counties.

The dam near Forestville is being inflated because of dry conditions this year and increasing demands for water. It is an important component of the Russian River water supply system.

Residents are urged to conserve water this year as the rainfall amounts and reservoir levels in the Russian River basin have been and are low.

Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.