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Populations of the threatened Delta smelt have plummeted to the lowest in history. The three-inch fish is often the focus of California’s water wars. Every fall and spring, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife conducts trawls to determine populations of the threatened Delta Smelt. This year the department hasn’t netted more than seven fish in each trawl.

“Delta smelt have suffered significantly because of the drought and the extended period of low inflow and outflow from the Delta,” says Carl Wilcox with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

 

The weekend storm bolstered Lake Oroville’s water level to its highest level in nearly three years. As of 4 p.m. Monday, the lake elevation was at 792.32 feet, 107.68 feet from the dam’s crest of 900 feet above sea level. Since Thursday, the lake has risen 20.5 feet.

The last time Lake Oroville was this full was Aug. 3, 2013, when the lake was measured at 792.48 feet, according to data from the state Department of Water Resources. State Parks Superintendent Aaron Wright anticipated a busy year for the lake.

March storms are building the Sierra Nevada snowpack and helping to fill key reservoirs that are tapped in the spring and summer for water supply. The recent series of storms brought more snow to the Sierra Nevada – mostly in the northern Sierra.

Maury Roos, a hydrologist with the California Department of Water Resources, says the northern Sierra has nearly received its average precipitation for the entire month of March. But, Roos says, it’s not “Miracle March”… yet.

This weekend’s soaking rains delivered just what drought-weary Northern California needed: billions of gallons of water pouring into the state’s major reservoirs — and more predicted for later this week.

With rain totals reaching 10 inches or more in some mountain areas, 46 of the largest reservoirs in California, closely tracked by the state Department of Water Resources, collectively added 391 billion gallons of water between Friday and Monday morning — enough for the needs of 6 million people for a year.

For the past year, there has been a lot of optimism surrounding the potential relief from the five-year drought that El Niño could bring to California. But though we have seen our rivers swell and our mountains capped with snow, the precipitation from El Niño is not enough to provide a long-term solution to California’s water crisis.

California’s water woes are not simply from a lack of rainfall and changes in the climate; they exist because of a fundamental lack of infrastructure that even in times of record rainfall is not sufficient for our state’s needs.