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A Beginner’s Course On How Officials Determine Potential Run-Off

/in , /by /Sierra Wave (Bishop, Calif.)by Deb Murphy
To Eastern Sierra residents, in most years, annual run-off means the streams and canals rise and pasture lands start to green-up. For Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, run-off is the city’s life’s blood, the calculation that figures into the department’s operations for the next 12 months. In years like 2017, run-off is an all-consuming 24/7 concern. So, how do they figure it out? Eric Tillemans, LADWP engineer, gave the Inyo County Board of Supervisors a beginner’s course in Run-Off 101 at a recent meeting. Here’s how it works.
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DWP Measures Snowpack At 171 Percent Of Normal

/in , /by /Sierra Wave (Bishop, Calif.)

On April 5, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) hydropgraphers performed the final snowpack survey for the season, which helps determine the amount of water available for Los Angeles’ water supply. This year, the snowpack measured at 171 percent of normal, which translates to a well above average year. In comparison, the snowpack registered at 66 percent of normal in 2018, a dry year, and 203 percent in 2017, the second wettest year on record. Snowpack measurements help determine how much water supply LADWP can expect from the LA Aqueduct and how much it will need to purchase from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD).

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