San Diego County is in the midst of moderate drought conditions, even after experiencing its 28th-wettest December on record, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
For farmers like Charley Wolk in Fallbrook, last month’s rain was money to their ears.
“That December rain was verging on miraculous,” Wolk said.
With a parade of storms sweeping California in December, the federal government’s US Drought map has shown severe drought conditions fade across the state in recent weeks, and on the most recent map released Thursday, “exceptional drought” — the most extreme level of drought — completely disappeared from the map.
The map quickly went viral on Reddit, but Jeanine Jones, the drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources, cautioned that the map isn’t an accurate depiction of the overall picture in the state and said that the drought is far from over.
If it looks like something that could transport you into the future, in a sense it is. A spaceship-sized hoop suspended from a helicopter is actually part of an advanced water detection system. The information it’s gathering, could help determine the future of California’s water supply – and where we store it.
“I’ve seen similar studies that say, ‘Hey, let’s not even think of building more above ground reservoirs. Let’s use all the empty space below,'” says Rosemary Knight, Ph.D., a professor of Geophysics and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.
After an atmospheric river unleashed a torrent of rain over Northern California in October, the state saw another moisture-rich system in November and then a parade of storms across December.
With a wet start this season, the rivers are rushing, the waterfalls flowing and the reservoirs beginning to rise. The snowpack is signaling a remarkable turnaround after two dry seasons. The Hyatt Power Plant is back online at Lake Oroville after it was forced to shut down due to historic low reservoir levels in August.
As a rainy December comes to close, nearly all Northern California reservoirs were still drier than historic averages for this time of year, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.
But the precipitation still gave several reservoirs a boost from the beginning of the month.
Residents of Ramona’s Acres community are working with local officials and a nonprofit on an application for a $1.32 million grant that would give them better access to clean water.
The funds would pay for new water main pipelines for the community, which has contaminated well water and inadequate pipes.
Toby Roy, a specialist with the nonprofit Rural Community Assistance Corporation, provided an update on the application process at the Dec. 14 Ramona Municipal Water District meeting.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) amended a federal permit application last week to change to the preferred tunnel route for the proposed Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), a move that has Delta advocates questioning DWR’s long-term plans for the South Delta.
The agency said the move was necessary to align the federal permit application – known as a Section 404 and filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – and a draft environmental impact report that is currently being prepared by DWR. The so-called Bethany Alternative will be the preferred project in both documents, though DWR stressed that the change does not indicate that a decision has been made with regard to the route the tunnel will take if the project is approved.
A collaborative of local water districts, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Triunfo Water & Sanitation District and Calleguas Municipal Water District, are urging significant water use reductions by their customers after the California Department of Water Resources announced a 0% initial allocation from the State Water Project for the upcoming year.
When physicians want to take a look at a patient’s vascular system to see things that aren’t visible to the naked eye, they often turn to MRI technology. That is what experts with the California Department of Water Resources are doing to analyze the state’s water system – specifically the underground aquifers that collect and store precipitation and other surface water.
Most California water districts will receive virtually no water next year from the State Water Project other than for health and safety needs amid “unprecedented drought conditions,” the state’s the Department of Water Resources announced Wednesday.
The announcement to zero out the State Water Project’s allocation for 2022 comes as officials anticipate a third straight dry year in California that has reservoirs at or nearing record lows.
In a statement Wednesday, DWR Director Karla Nemeth said preparations are needed now with a dry winter expected and with drought conditions likely to continue into next year.
“We will be working with our federal partners and SWP contractors to take a conservative planning approach to balance limited water supplies with the needs of residents, businesses, and the environment,” Nemeth said.
But the San Diego region is better off than other parts of the state, including elsewhere in Southern California, officials say. Since the 1990 drought, San Diego water experts have relied on multiple water sources and not just the state’s.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
