Despite of all the rain, California’s reservoirs are still very low. The storage system is used to capture rainfall and snowmelt runoff for use later in the year.
El Niño is producing snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The snowpack is looking promising according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Current snowpack measurements are 16 inches more than they have been recorded since 1965.
A California lawmaker is dramatically raising the stakes when it comes to water, proposing fines that could reach thousands of dollars a day and public shaming of everyone who fails to conserve.
Legislation introduced this week would require the state’s 411 urban water districts to set a local limit on household water consumption for drought emergencies.
Violators would be fined at least $500 for every 748 gallons of excess use.
An Alamo house identified last month as using more than 11,200 gallons per day would be assessed $6,800 a day in fines, or more than $200,000 a month, under the penalties called for in the bill.
Q: With all the rain we’ve received recently, we’ve turned off our irrigation system. What else can we do to conserve during winter?
A: You’re off to a great start by turning off sprinklers; outdoor water use accounts for more than half of water use in a typical home. There are indeed other ways to save as the focus shifts to indoor water use.
Much of the torrential rain that fell on Southern California this week flowed right into the ocean, just like it did before the state’s epic drought.
That seemed like a good idea for many years, as storm drains provided a crucial defense against flooding. But with California entering what may be a fifth year of drought, water agencies are slowly moving to capture and store more of this precious resource.
Several Central Coast reservoirs are gathering water from this week’s storms.
In Santa Barbara County, the Cachuma and Gibraltar Reservoirs, both at their lowest levels in decades, saw an increase in depth. Gibraltar gained about one foot, while Cachuma saw about fifth of a foot.
Gibraltar Reservoir, Santa Barbara County
Credit santabarbaraca.gov
The reservoirs in San Luis Obispo County are seeing increases from rainfall as well.
Folsom Lake, one of the water storage areas in northern California, rose almost 30 feet in just 30 days. The increase was thanks in big part to the recent series of storms, bringing multiple days of rain to the Central Valley.
According to the National Weather Service, Folsom Lake rose steadily at the end of December, then took a sharp increase starting December 22. Folsom Lake is now at 52 percent of average for this date.
A California lawmaker is dramatically raising the stakes in water management, proposing fines that could reach thousands of dollars a day and public shaming of people who use too much.
Legislation introduced this week would require the state’s 411 urban water districts to set local limits on household water consumption during drought emergencies.
The first major El Niño storm system finished its path through Southern California on Thursday, giving officials a chance to study both the behavior of the storms and how officials responded to them.
The assessments are important because forecasters are predicting a winter of heavy, potentially destructive rain because of the El Niño weather pattern.
Cold weather and heavy snowfall this winter may mean the end of drought in 2016 — maybe.
According to the first water supply outlook report for the year — released by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service — all basins in Oregon are experiencing above-normal snowpack levels, an estimated 125 percent of average.
That’s for the basins. The news gets even better. Snowfall levels already have surpassed the peak levels of last year’s snow season in all locations statewide. All locations.
Water managers are cautiously optimistic that the state will see drought recovery.
The sun shone down on the suddenly soddened Santa Clarita Valley Thursday, but officials warn the at-times heavy rainstorms seen this week could be just the first taste of what’s to come as the historically strong El Nino weather event continues in the Pacific Ocean.
Back-to-back storms on Tuesday and Wednesday dropped almost 4 inches of rain in the Newhall Pass, with about 2 inches falling in Saugus, according to the latest records from the National Weather Service.
