California’s 2016 water year ended Friday with lower-than-expected rainfall and a “snow drought” as the state’s snowpack measured well below average.Water year 2016, which ran from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, was officially categorized as “dry” statewide, continuing California’s five-year drought. The onset of the new water year has brought attention to the record reliance on groundwater by farmers and water wars between corporations and residents.
An unseasonably cool weather system dropped rain and hail in parts of Northern California and dusted the Sierra Nevada with snow. Several ski resorts around Lake Tahoe tweeted photos of snow on the slopes on Sunday. The National Weather Service says up to 3 inches of snow could fall until midnight. Spotty showers moved across the region, where nearly a half-inch of rain fell in the northern Sacramento Valley. Hail was reported in Chico, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, as well as Rocklin and Folsom Lake.
Two years ago, over half of California suffered from “exceptional drought”, the worst possible designation given by the U.S. Drought Monitor. That number stands at over 21% today. Huge portions of that area along the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles, and a substantial portion of area inland from there remain parched. Much of this is farmland Some of the areas most desperate will receive little or no help from the government at all.
California’s 2016 Water Year drew to a close Friday, ending a fifth consecutive year marked by meager precipitation that fell more often as rain than snow. Record warm temperatures created an early and below-average runoff that was in large part absorbed by parched soil before ever reaching the State’s reservoirs. The water content of the California Sierra snowpack, often referred to as “the state’s largest reservoir,” flows each spring into a series of above ground storage reservoirs that essentially serve as California’s water savings accounts in order to meet the growing demands of an uncertain climate future.
Here, on the front lines of the state’s recently declared water war, we have more questions than ammunition.Is the State Water Resources Control Board serious? Is the water board even in charge? Was Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for “voluntary agreements,” instead of regulatory demands, a suggestion or an order? Who will go extinct first – salmon or farmers? OK, that’s a rhetorical question; salmon have a huge head start. But the race isn’t over.
Every October in California, leaves and temperatures fall, pumpkins dot the fields and college football season takes stride. But despite the trappings of autumn, October is California’s most dangerous month for wildfires, posing a deadly mixture of heavy seasonal winds, unpredictable weather patterns and bone dry vegetation. If history is a guide, the Loma fire, which began burning through a remote corner of the Santa Cruz Mountains on Sept. 25, may not be the end of the Bay Area’s fire threats for the year. It may just be the beginning.
This summer, as temperatures soared and groundwater depletion created more San Joaquin Valley sinkholes, Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, put forth legislation to fast-track conservation of underground water supplies.
The proposal was modest: Delay drilling in overdrafted basins until the state’s new groundwater law takes hold in earnest. The bill squeaked through the Senate. Then the agricultural lobbies and the California Chamber of Commerce put it out of its misery.
“Drill, baby, drill” has since been the unofficial motto of California’s ag counties, in a trend that makes Wolk’s worries look quaint now.
This summer, as temperatures soared and depleted groundwater turned the San Joaquin Valley into a collection of sinkholes, state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, put forth legislation to fast-track conservation of underground water supplies.
The proposal was modest: Delay drilling in overdrafted basins until the state’s new groundwater law takes hold in earnest. The bill squeaked through the Senate. Then the agricultural lobbies and the California Chamber of Commerce put it out of its misery.
A plan to build two huge tunnels to shunt fresh water around the Sacramento Delta is supposed to be funded entirely by the people who received the water. But taxpayers may end up paying a substantial amount of the tab.
That’s according to documents obtained by the Stockton-based environmental group Restore the Delta that discuss the cost of the California WaterFix project, which is projected to cost at least $16 billion to build.
Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed a bill by Assemblyman James Gallagher to expedite construction of water storage projects, such as the proposed Sites Reservoir in Colusa and Glenn counties.
The new law will allow water storage construction projects to utilize alternative delivery methods for procurement.
“It’s great. It’s something we worked with a lot of different stakeholders on, as well as worked across the aisle on,” Gallagher said. “It’s nice to see something that I think is going to be really helpful with building water storage.”
