Opinion: New Melones Modeling & Megadroughts: Setting Stage for State’s Water Armageddon
New Melones Reservoir is the proverbial canary in the mine when it comes to where state water policy wedded with the return of megadroughts is taking California.
Using historical hydrology data on the Stanislaus River basin between 1922 and 2019:
*Based on current regulatory rules New Melones Reservoir would fall below 250,000 acre feet of storage in 3 out of the 98 years.