Water outlook: From ‘doom and gloom’ to ‘pretty positive’

On Wednesday morning, while facing the Yolo Bypass brimming with water, a group of water district managers, farmers and fish biologists stood atop Wallace Weir and delivered what seemed almost unthinkable at the end of February — good news about the California water supply.

A string of storms in March has inundated the North State’s major reservoirs and sent storm water surging through rivers and bypasses, transforming the tenor of talks about water supply for agriculture and cold water storage for endangered salmon from doom and gloom scenarios to cautious optimism, said Lewis Bair, general manager of Reclamation District 108.