Although California water watchers let their guard down after last winter’s deluge of hydration, the San Jose Mercury News published a reminder this week that the state’s drought is probably not over. In fact, it may turn out to be a decade-plus affair. The Mercury News quoted Heather Cooley of the Oakland non-profit Pacific Institute (which keeps tabs on water use) cautioning prudence at the tap:
Cloud seeding has become big business worldwide as a means to boost water supplies. Utilities and governments spend tens of millions of dollars on the process, which is especially common in Western states that rely on winter snowpack to meet year-round water demand. The basic process involves spraying silver iodide from a plane as it flies through storm clouds. The silver iodide induces moisture in the cloud to form ice crystals, which then (hopefully) fall out as snow. Some studies have estimated cloud seeding can boost snowfall by between 8 and 15 percent.
As water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead drop, the potential for restrictions on water use in 2019 rise, but not for all Colorado River water users. Under the 2007 drought plan guidelines Arizona adopted, Central Arizona Project will take the full hit for whatever that reduction is, said Mark Clark, Mohave Valley Irrigation and Drainage District manager. CAP’s hit, Clark said, is about 349,000 acre-feet of water. “The local folk here along the river really won’t see any change due to a shortage declaration at a tier one level,” Clark explained.
A radical change in scope for the California WaterFix project has tunnels opponents calling for the state to scrap the permit approval and begin anew. In a memo dated Feb. 7, Karla Nemeth, director of the DWR, announced that WaterFix will be developed in two stages. The first stage will include a single tunnel and two intakes with a capacity of 6,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). The second phase will add another tunnel and a third intake expanding the capacity to 9,000 cfs.
Overall water use is climbing in Southern California as that part of the state plunges back into drought, driving state and regional water managers as they consider permanently reinstating some watering bans and conservation programs. Gov. Jerry Brown lifted California’s drought emergency status a year ago, after a wet winter that snapped a historic 2013-2017 drought, and the state ended his 25 percent mandatory conservation order. Water use has been moving steadily upward since then, especially in a six-county area of Southern California that includes the biggest chunk of the state’s nearly 40 million people.
As California suffers through another dry winter, increasing fears that drought conditions may be returning, the state’s residents are dropping conservation habits that were developed during the last drought and steadily increasing their water use with each passing month. A new analysis of state water records by this news organization found California’s urban residents used 13.7 percent less water last year in the first eight months after Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the drought emergency than they used in the same eight-month period in 2013.
More than three years ago, on Nov. 4, 2014, 67 percent of voters approved California Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014. The nearly 4.8 million Californians who voted for the bond did so knowing that new water storage was crucial for addressing longer and more frequent drought periods, punctuated by flashier storm systems. On top of that, the governor and state representatives have made it clear they consider new water storage a key component in upgrading our water infrastructure.
This may be great weather for weekend fun, but a continued lack of rainfall has state and federal officials worried about a return of drought conditions, after two wet winters. It hasn’t rained a drop here for more than a month, and none is forecast for the rest of the month. In Hollister, rainfall this winter is less than half the October-February average—about 4 inches since Oct. 1. In Gilroy and Morgan Hill, less than 4 inches of rain has been recorded since Oct.1, which is barely 25 percent of the normal rainfall for the South County.
Anyone caught wasting water in California may be fined as much as $500 under new rules being considered by the state water board. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to adopt regulation coming before the board on Feb. 20 that would make it a crime to commit any of seven wasteful water practices — from lawn over watering to street median irrigation. Those rules would take effect April 1. “These are permanent prohibitions on wasteful water uses,” said Max Gomberg, a climate and conservation manager for the state board. The ruling would formally make the rules part of the state code.
We’re glad to see the state government is finally realizing Californians just aren’t going to save water merely because it’s the right thing to do. The signs of a dry winter have been piling up for months, and yet the statewide water saving rate has continued to decline. It’s been going that way since the Water Resources Control Board decided last spring to let the state’s water providers set their own conservation targets, and virtually all of them choose zero.
