California’s water supply has hit a new milestone for the year in the wake of three weeks of wet weather.
Water levels at two of the state’s largest reservoirs are now at their highest point in 2.5 years, Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan said.
Nearly every square mile of California was in a severe drought four months ago. The first six months of 2022 were the driest on record and, in many corners of the state, the rest of the year wasn’t much better.
Now we’re worrying about whether we have too much water in some places.
December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated. Throughout California, urban water managers are bracing for a fourth consecutive drought year.
For the second year in a row, the State Water Project will cut deliveries to 5% of requested supplies amid a continuing drought that officials Thursday termed “a new era.” The network of 21 dams and hundreds of miles of canals, pipelines and tunnels serves 27 million Californians from Chico through the Central Valley to Los Angeles, though not San Diego County.
Despite recent rain storms across the state, California’s historic drought shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
The California Department of Water Resources began the process of monitoring the water quality at Lake Oroville on Thursday. According to a press release issued Thursday by DWR, the process consists of placing sondes, a type of monitoring device, into Lake Oroville as well as the Thermalito Diversion Pool.
Back in 2021 the Hyatt Powerplant was taken offline because of historically low water levels.
DWR announced that the plant is expected to stay online through 2022. On Monday, the lake level was at 693 feet elevation whereas the level had dropped to 628 in September 2021.
The plant is capable of generating 714 megawatts when the lake is at full capacity.
With California about to experience perhaps the hottest and driest start to September in its modern history, 16 of the state’s 17 major reservoirs entered the month below their historic average levels — several of them well below average, in another daunting reminder of California’s extraordinary ongoing drought and water concerns.
The Great Salt Lake has hit a new historic low for the second time in less than a year, a dire milestone as the US west continues to weather a historic mega-drought.
The Utah department of natural resources said in a news release on Monday that the Great Salt Lake dipped over the weekend to 4,190.1ft (1,277.1 meters).
Lake Oroville, the largest reservoir in a state system that provides water to 27 million Californians, has already reached its peak level for the year, barely surpassing half of its capacity, according to the Department of Water Resources.
Officials had warned the lake — key to the roughly 700-mile State Water Project, which pumps and ferries water across the state for agricultural, business and residential use — was at “critically low” levels on May 8.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
