The San Francisco Bay is an estuary — an ecological mixing bowl where salty waters from the Pacific Ocean meet the fresh runoff that flows down from the high sierra through the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and eventually to the sea. The brackish blending together of these aquatic inputs produces one of the most abundant ecosystems on the planet. Shrimp, crabs, smelt, salmon, and many small but supremely important invertebrates swim (or scuttle) in its mild waters. Cormorants, pelicans, geese, and ducks galore wing overhead or waddle along its shores.

California is in the middle of its fifth year in drought. Experts say it has been the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years. Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes, and dried-up farm fields dot the state’s landscape — and despite some recent signs of recovery, the overall outlook is still ominously dry. Across the state, reservoirs remain far below their capacity and, more importantly, far below their historical average. And California isn’t alone. Last year, Dean Farrell of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill made a stunning interactive graphic showing the shrinking state of reservoirs across the western US.

The State Water Resources Board has released the draft of a Scientific Basis Report that looks at fisheries and water flows in the Sacramento River and Bay-Delta region. The area supplies 80 percent of the Valley’s water. The report issued Oct. 19 follows by several weeks a draft study sent out for comment on the other major river that flows into the Delta, the San Joaquin River, which feeds the federal Central Valley Project. Zone 7 Water Agency is suppled by the State Water Project from the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River.

Over the past five years, Californians have been trained to turn the faucet off when brushing their teeth, allow their lawns to turn dusty brown and keep their gardens alive using dishwater. These tactics, among others, allowed urban water users to reduce their average consumption by almost 25 percent in 2015. Those caught wasting water were publicly shamed by the media. The state’s almond industry, especially, has been vilified for its intensive use of California’s precious water.