With all of the extreme heat and lack of rain here in California, some have said that we’re currently in the state’s worst drought in modern history. The drought is so bad that the state of California has now cut off water supplies to farmers in the Central Valley.
So how is the water supply here in San Diego? KUSI’s Dan Plante joined viewers live from Miramar Lake with the local situation.
Some farmers in one of the country’s most important agricultural regions will have to stop taking water out of major rivers and streams because of a severe drought that is threatening the drinking water supply for 25 million people, state regulators said Tuesday.
The Water Resources Control Board approved an emergency resolution empowering regulators to halt diversions from the state’s two largest river systems. The order could apply to roughly 86% of landowners who have legal rights to divert water from the San Joaquin and Sacramento river watersheds. The remaining 14% could be impacted if things get worse.
Lake Oroville reached the lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level at 10 a.m. Tuesday. For comparison, when Lake Oroville is full, the surface water level is 900 feet above sea level.
Increasing issues are arising from the low levels being seen at Lake Oroville. Water operations manager for the Department of Water Resources State Water Project Molly White said last week in an email that due to the falling lake levels, the Edward Hyatt Power Plant may be forced to close down for the first time in its history due to low lake elevation.
More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River in the West, and every drop of it is used. But with climate change, there’s now less water to go around. To try and avoid a multi-state legal battle over this precious resource, Colorado and other states are considering paying people to keep more water in the river.
In southwest Gunnison County, farmers and ranchers rely on water that would otherwise end up in the Colorado River. Drought has plagued the area for more than 20 years, so the resource is now more valuable than ever.
The West has been so dry and so hot for so long that its current drought has no modern precedent, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist.
For the first time in 122 years of record-keeping, drought covers almost the entire Western U.S. as measured by the Palmer Drought Severity Index, said Richard Heim, a drought historian and an author of the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“It’s a very simple ‘yes,’ in terms of this drought being unprecedented,” Heim said.
San Diego has long been blessed with its weather.
But this summer, it’s ridiculous — as in ridiculously good compared with the extreme weather exacerbated by climate change that’s wreaking havoc elsewhere.
Across oceans or up the coast, it seems various regions of the world are either burning or drowning.
But here, this summer has been, well, very San Diego. Sure, there have been hot spells and even some record temperatures, but really nothing much out of the ordinary.
California’s five-year drought that ended in 2016 was brutal, one of the most severe in history. It unfolded during historic statewide high temperatures and included the driest four-year period on record and the lowest Sierra Nevada snowpack ever recorded.
It took sacrifice and resolve, but the state made it through that challenge, thanks in part to a 25 percent reduction in urban water use mandated by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
Now drought conditions have returned — and arguably the underlying conditions are worse than those experienced five years ago. Temperatures continue to rise, setting all-time records last summer, and parched conditions have extended throughout most of the West, stressing the Colorado River basin.
In Santa Clara County, lawns are dry, a reservoir is nearly empty, and water restrictions are mandated. After two winters with very little rain — and San Jose’s driest year in 128 years of record keeping — the county is marked by one of the worst droughts in modern history.
Santa Clara County’s experience of drought is set apart from the rest of the state by a myriad of issues — less water from the Sierra Nevada, the effect of human-caused climate change on water supplies, and a case of incredibly bad luck.
Desalination projects in the San Diego area could get millions in federal funding under a bill Rep. Mike Levin introduced Tuesday.
The Desalination Development Act would provide $260 million over five years for desalination projects across the country, including the City of Oceanside’s Mission Basin Groundwater Purification Facility, which converts brackish flows into potable water, said Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano.
It also sets environmental standards for projects that get federal funding, with requirements for energy efficiency, wildlife protection and water conservation.
As California endures an increasingly brutal second year of drought, state water regulators are considering an emergency order that would bar thousands of Central Valley farmers from using stream and river water to irrigate their crops.
