Farmers in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley are bracing to receive no irrigation water from the federal government for a third consecutive year.
They’re hoping for El Nino-driven storms to produce the very wet winter they need. Reservoirs and groundwater supplies are critically low after four drought years.
North State residents are seeing something this month they haven’t seen in several years.
It has been six years since this much rain has fallen over the North State in January, according to the National Weather Service.
Since the beginning of the month, 8.41 inches of rain has fallen at the Weather Service’s rain gauge at the Redding Municipal Airport — almost as much as the past five years combined. In January 2015, only .26 inches of rain fell on Redding.
California cities that are hot, dry or crowded, or have managed to come up with new sources of water, might be able to get a slight break in the state’s drought-time water-conservation targets, state officials said Friday.
California’s Water Resources Control Board is slated to decide in February whether to slightly ease water-conservation targets for some cities and towns. Gov. Jerry Brown mandated last year that the state overall had to see 25 percent less water use by cities and towns to cope with the state’s four-year drought.
The New Year is getting off to a phenomenal start with snow falling at Lake Tahoe. It seems long ago since we’ve had snow around the lake, but as California and Nevada continue to grapple with four years of drought and water shortages, the snow couldn’t be falling at a better time.
A snow survey this January by California Department of Water Resources found 54 inches of snow at Echo Summit. That’s 16 inches above average for this time of year. And it’s significantly more snow than we saw last April when the snowpack is usually at its greatest but surveyors found no accumulated snow on the ground.
The Bay Area will see a brief reprieve from rain most of Friday after a weak system moved out of the region, but unsettled weather is set to return soon with a series of storms lined up across the Pacific and blowing toward Northern California that could bring as much as 10 inches of rain to the wettest spots over the next seven days.
Rainfall totals from Thursday’s overnight storm were relatively scant with San Francisco and Oakland picking up just under a quarter of an inch,
Acknowledging the challenges posed by the hot, dry climate endemic to much of inland California, state drought regulators Friday proposed easing the water-conservation rules for Sacramento and other communities where it takes extra water to keep trees from dying.
The new rules also would loosen conservation mandates for communities that have invested in new “drought-resilient” water supplies, as well as those that have experienced rapid population growth in recent years.
California Governor Jerry Brown warned on Thursday of near-apocalyptic water shortages if his $15 billion plan to divert water from a Northern California River for use elsewhere gets bogged down in political and environmental disputes.
The plan to remove water north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fragile source of much of the state’s drinking water, is opposed by many environmentalists, but Brown insisted it was crucial in shoring up water supplies in the drought-plagued state.
As California begins a new year and a hectic legislative session in Sacramento, a new Golden State Poll conducted by the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution finds California’s voters most concerned with the ongoing drought and the state’s economic recovery.
“California’s electorate is, in a word, adult,” said Hoover Institution research fellow Bill Whalen, who follows California politics and policy. “Despite the distractions of an election year and surplus revenue to spend in Sacramento, it expects lawmakers to act responsibly and sensibly.”
Gov. Jerry Brown released an update to his plan Thursday for how to manage California’s water. The update includes pushing ahead with more dams, reservoirs and a pair of tunnels underneath the Delta.
Facing uncertain financing and a ballot measure threatening his $15.5 billion Delta water plan, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday called the project a “fundamental necessity” and said he is confident “we’ll get it done.”
Brown’s remarks, following a speech to water officials in Sacramento, came as the fourth-term governor tries to secure federal approvals and funding from water users for his plan to build two tunnels to divert water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the south.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
