As the final days of summer near, California’s reservoirs are in a position they have not been in for some time, they still have a significant amount of water in them.
As of Thursday, all but Trinity Reservoir near Redding and Casitas near Ventura, are at or above their historic average levels, according to the California Department of Water data exchange.
As California emerges from a two-week bout of deadly atmospheric rivers, a number of climate researchers say the recent storms appear to be typical of the intense, periodic rains the state has experienced throughout its history and not the result of global warming.
Although scientists are still studying the size and severity of storms that killed 19 people and caused up to $1 billion in damage, initial assessments suggest the destruction had more to do with California’s historic drought-to-deluge cycles, mountainous topography and aging flood infrastructure than it did with climate-altering greenhouse gasses.
It’s not long ago that Lake Cachuma, the main water source on the South Coast, was in danger of going dry in a seven-year drought.
Water agencies from Carpinteria to Goleta spent millions of dollars scrambling to buy surplus state aqueduct water from around the state to avert a local shortage. They did so not only because their groundwater levels were plunging and Cachuma was failing, but because their yearly allocations from the aqueduct had dropped to zero.
Both Jameson and Gibraltar reservoirs are over capacity, with each holding some 100.4% of their respective capacities. Gibraltar Reservoir, holding 4,603 acre-feet of water, has experienced an increase of 2,064 acre-feet during the 2020 water year, which began Sept. 1, 2019, and runs through Aug. 31.
One of the poster-lake shots for the California drought in 2016 was Cachuma Lake in the Santa Ynez Valley when it dropped down to a muddy level of seven percent surrounded by brown hills. This morning after impressive rains and a direct runoff from the Santa Ynez watershed it is rising to within 15 feet of the spill level at Bradbury Dam.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
