This is just one post in the Drought, Weather & Snowpack Category

Coverage from around the state: It’s official; the last snow survey shows the snowpack sucks!

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 2, 2008 at 6:33 am

How bad does the snowpack suck? From Steve Weigand’s blog at the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert:

It was not a good sign today when Gehrke found a pencil he’d dropped on his last trip up here a month ago. The pencil was in the dirt where he should have found snow. At five of the first seven spots on his course, in fact, Gehrke came up dry. Overall, the average snow depth was just 3.3 inches, and the water content of that snow was 1.7 inches, just 11 percent of average for this location on May 1.

With essentially no snow for the month, the location Gehrke was checking today lost 25 inches of water content in April, and that followed a bone-dry March. Gehrke described his findings as “pretty grim.”

You can read Daniel Weintraub’s blog by clicking here.

From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa County Times:

California’s snowpack is low for the second year in a row, leaving water managers across the state grappling with the triple threat of a dry year, depleted reservoirs and new environmental restrictions on pumping from the Delta.

Thursday’s snowpack measure, the final one of the year, came in at 67 percent of normal. That represents a substantial drop from recent months due mostly to a record-breaking dry spell in March and April. And it has thrown California into a near-drought as concerns mount among water managers that the state could be entering a new era of water instability — with the spectre of water rationing, court fights and fallowed fields — that could last a decade or more.

“All of the tools are getting broken,” said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “If this isn’t a crisis, I don’t know what is.”

Following strong storms earlier in the winter, March and April were the driest those two months have been in the northern Sierra since record keeping began in 1922, state Department of Water Resources chief hydrologist Maury Roos said. “I don’t think we’d call it a drought year,” he said. “Yet.”

But it is shaping up as the driest year since 1994, according to early estimates for an index that tracks snowpack and reservoir storage. The exact figure will be calculated in the coming days or weeks.

The low snowpack, which feeds downstream tributaries and reservoirs, comes atop two other challenges.

Last year was so dry that reservoirs that had been brimming for years were drawn down significantly. Lake Oroville, a key reservoir for parts of the Bay Area and Southern California, is only half full, the lowest it has been this time of year since 1991, when the state was at the tail end of a severe drought.

The second challenge has to do with new restrictions on water pumping and deliveries to farms and cities that are meant to protect threatened fish.

Good, comprehensive coverage I’ve come to expect from Mike Taugher. Read the rest of this story from this article from the Contra Costa County Times by clicking here.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Two parched years - punctuated by the driest spring in at least 150 years - could force districts across California to ration water this summer as policymakers and scientists grow increasingly concerned that the state is on the verge of a long-term drought.

State water officials reported Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of a huge portion of California’s water supply, was only 67 percent of normal, due in part to historically low rainfall in March and April. With many reservoirs at well-below-average levels from the previous winter and a federal ruling limiting water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the new data added a dimension to a crisis already complicated by crumbling infrastructure, surging population and environmental concerns.

“We’re in a dry spell if not a drought,” said California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. “We’re in the second year, and if we’re looking at a third year, we’re talking about a serious problem.”

Chrisman stopped short of saying the state would issue mandatory water rationing, which appears possible only if the governor declares a state of emergency. Rather, the burden will fall on local water agencies. Many, such as San Francisco and Marin County, have asked residents and businesses over the past year to cut water usage voluntarily by 10 to 20 percent.

Others have taken more drastic steps.

The article also adds this:

No industry faces bigger changes than agriculture, which uses about 80 percent of California’s available water; the remainder goes to urban areas. Some experts say they believe the balance could shift toward urban areas. Already, some farmers are switching to crops requiring less water and letting fields go fallow. One water agency official recently talked to a Southern California avocado grower who cut his trees back to stumps and won’t begin growing again until water supplies recover.

“We have a lot of water, but we also use a lot of water,” said Jeffrey Mount, director for watershed sciences at UC Davis. “From an economic perspective, it makes sense moving water from agriculture to urban uses.”

In fact, some farmers are already selling their water to urban districts. But there is no easy system for transporting that water, and the infrastructure required would be extremely costly.

Much more on this story from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

From the Los Angeles Times:

California communities face a strong possibility of water shortages and even mandatory rationing this summer because of record dry weather in March and April, a fast-shrinking snowpack and below-normal reservoir levels, state officials said Thursday. The bleak news, contained in California’s final Sierra snowpack report of the snow season, means a second consecutive year of water anxieties in a state heavily dependent on water from the melting snow in the Sierra Nevada.

“I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I’ve been doing this 30 years,” said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies. An outmoded delivery system and court rulings that protect endangered fish are also straining the system, he said.

“This is a harbinger of relatively tough times, not just for this year but for a set of years,” Quinn said. He and others urged Californians to rein in water use.

“We need to recognize that we’re in a water shortage and begin to act accordingly,” state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman told reporters at a Sacramento news conference.

Read the full text of the story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Despite new warnings Thursday that a water crisis is looming in California, state officials continue to maintain that enforceable conservation goals are not necessary.

The Department of Water Resources on Thursday took its final Sierra Nevada snowpack survey of the season, and the findings only added to the grim prognosis for the state’s water supply. The water content of the snowpack stands at just 67 percent of average for the May 1 date. That’s because this year’s March and April period proved to be the driest since 1921, when record-keeping began.

Though snowfall was about average in January and February, it wasn’t enough to make up for the following two months, which were virtually snowless. After drought conditions last year, much of the snowmelt will merely be absorbed by parched soil and won’t make its way into the streams and reservoirs.

In addition, poor environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and a federal court decision have restricted water exports to 25 million Californians. It’s estimated these effects have already cost customers about 600,000 acre-feet of water this year, or enough to serve 1.2 million families for a year.

“We’re really up against it here in California,” said Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman.

In February, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a 20 percent per capita cut in water use statewide by 2020. But as bold as that goal might seem, the conservation target comes with no teeth.

On Thursday, during a rare Capitol news conference on the meager snowpack, Chrisman said the administration does not yet have a plan to impose mandates or penalties to ensure that California meets the conservation target. “We’re not there yet,” he said. “We will be addressing that at some point, but I don’t know the answer to that yet.”

Read the full text of this story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Take a look at Lake Oroville, the main reservoir of the State Water Project - click here. No time to excerpt any more articles, so here are links to more of today’s coverage of this story: Fresno Bee, Stockton’s Record, and the Modesto Bee.

May 2, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack