It’s raining in California. Is the drought over? That’s a complicated question. Voice of San Diego recently answered it like this: “Southern California’s drought emergency is over, but its overall drought may not be. It depends what you mean by ‘drought.’”
Donald Trump made some big campaign promises about water during his election campaign. Now that he has been elected president, those promises could dramatically shake up how water is managed in the arid West. In one of his few direct statements about water, Trump has said he wants to invest in treatment systems to prevent problems caused by aging distribution lines, citing as an example the drinking-water contamination in the Michigan city of Flint. To do this, he proposes to triple funding for a federal loan program, called the state revolving fund, from the current $2 billion to $6 billion.
The Bay Area is in the midst of one of its wettest Januarys in the past 15 years, including record rainfall in Santa Rosa, and more is on the way. After the first in a series of storms soaked the Bay Area on Wednesday into Thursday morning, drenching Santa Rosa with more than 3 inches of rain, two more systems are taking aim at the region. The next soaking was expected to begin late Thursday night and deliver rainfall totals ranging from a half-inch to 1 inch to most Bay Area cities, said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
The California State Water Resources Control Board is being urged to redraft a proposal to double the minimum environmental flows from the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers. Assembly member Adam Gray, D-Merced, has criticized the board for not paying attention to concerns voiced by multiple groups. In a statement, Gray said the proposal “contains so many oversights and error and is so substantially flawed that I cannot possibly do every issue justice in the short time I have today.”
As winter storms continue to fill reservoirs and boost the snowpack, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) Wednesday increased its estimate of this year’s State Water Project (SWP) supply from 45 to 60 percent of most requests.
With storms drenching much of California and snow blanketing the Sierra Nevada, the state’s top water regulators are grappling with how to shift from conservation rules devised during more than five years of drought to a long-term strategy for using water more sustainably. The State Water Resources Control Board plans to decide in February whether to extend the current drought regulations, which require local water districts to report on monthly water use and include measures such as prohibiting outdoor watering for 48 hours after rainstorms.
With major reservoirs nearly full, the Sierra Nevada snowpack well above average and flood warnings in place for some rivers, federal scientists reported Thursday a continued weakening of California’s drought. Overall, 44 percent of the state remains in severe drought conditions or worse, down from 49 percent a week ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The improved area, roughly 5.1 million acres, is mostly in the central Sierra Nevada, which has been hit with major snowstorms in recent weeks.
Amid what’s shaping up to be one of California’s wettest winters on record, the State Water Project on Jan. 18 upped its anticipated deliveries to at least 60 percent of requested supplies. The boost from 45 percent is the Department of Water Resources’ second allocation increase in less than a month, and it comes as many of its gauges in the Central Valley have recorded twice the normal rainfall for this time of year.
Sometimes, it takes a dry sense of humor to deal with a years-long drought—especially when you’ve watched a wave of storms hammer Northern California and realize your end of the state is missing out. “Better rain dances” is what Ken Doty said he’d need to alleviate the parched conditions at his Goleta orchards, where he grows avocados and citrus. “We are getting some rain,” Doty said. “We’re tracking right on the average annual year-to-date figures, but we have not had anywhere near enough to recover from the drought.” Some farmers say they sense a meteorological imbalance.
Despite drenching rains and heavy snowfall this winter, California moved Tuesday to keep in place its statewide water conservation rules — at least for another three months or so. On Tuesday, the staff of the State Water Resources Control Board recommended that the rules the agency put in place last summer relaxing strict mandates from 2015 should continue at least through May, when they can be re-evaluated after the winter rainy season is over.
