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Coverage wrap-up: Sierra snowpack findings signal a third year of drought; “We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history. It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses,” says Lester Snow

Posted by: Maven on January 30, 2009 at 8:09 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

State water officials reported Thursday that the statewide snowpack stands at only 61 percent of average for the winter so far; this likely ensures California will see its third straight drought year.

The Department of Water Resources conducted manual snow surveys at several locations in the Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack serves as the state’s water bank. Along Highway 50 near Echo Summit, surveyors found 34.6 inches of snow, or 68 percent of average. Conditions are worse in the Northern Sierra, which stands at 49 percent of average.

“We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history,” DWR Director Lester Snow said in a statement. “It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses.”

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

California’s largest reservoirs — Shasta and Oroville — are less than half as full as they should be for this time of year. The snowpack water content needs to be roughly double what it is today by April to replenish the reservoirs, said Don Strickland, a spokesman for the water agency.

It’s doubtful Mother Nature will grow the snowpack by that much. Felix Garcia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said a La Nina weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean is pushing most of this year’s winter storms past California.

“The rain is happening but it’s happening way north in Washington and in Canada,” Garcia said. “It is expected to remain about the same for the next two to three months.”

From the Central Valley Business Times:

Manual survey results were taken at four locations near Lake Tahoe, and combined with electronic readings, indicate a statewide snowpack water content of 61 percent (49 percent in the Northern Sierra, 63 percent in the Central Sierra, and 68 percent in the Southern Sierra.)

Last year at this time, snowpack was 111 percent of normal, but the driest spring on record followed resulting in a second consecutive dry water year.

Local water agencies are updating Urban Water Management Plans, and DWR is facilitating what water transfers may be available through its Drought Water Bank program. Many providers have already enacted mandatory or voluntary water rationing and it is likely more agencies will require some form of rationing if dry conditions persist.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

There are roughly eight weeks left in California’s traditional winter rainy season. If conditions don’t improve, homeowners could see increased water bills, brown lawns, and “water police” issuing fines for irrigating lawns on banned days. Farmers, who use 80 percent of the water that California residents consume, will almost certainly plant fewer acres. And the state’s salmon populations, already struggling from dams and poor ocean conditions, could fall further in number.

To escape a serious summer drought, the state will need rain and snow at significant levels in February and March. Yet a weather condition known as La Niña, which cools Pacific Ocean waters and limits California’s rainfall, is under way.

Silicon Valley has not experienced mandatory water rationing since 1991.

“If things continue the way they have been going so far, it is likely that we could see a call for mandatory conservation. But at this point, we’re not ready to make that decision without all the information in front of us,” said Susan Siravo, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

The readings are an important predictor of water supply for the coming year, and they will play a part in whether the Department of Water Resources further reduces its allocations to local suppliers, including Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. MWD buys about 60 percent of its water from the state and is a major source for agencies serving 2 million Inland households.

Revision of the allocation could come next week after readings at all 265 sampling stations in the Sierra are analyzed, said Susan Sims, the department’s chief deputy director.

This year’s projected allocation of 15 percent was one of the lowest on record, constricted by two years of drought and court-ordered reductions in pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta because of threatened fish species. The lowest early season state allocation was 10 percent in 1993; that figure was later increased to 100 percent after a wet winter.

“I’ve heard some discussion of a 5 to 10 percent change in allocation,” said John Rossi, general manager of Western Municipal Water District, which serves areas from Riverside south to Temecula. “It may as well be zero, it’s such a minimal amount.”

From the Fresno Bee:

In the Southern Sierra, from Yosemite National Park to Kern County, the snowpack is slightly healthier than the rest of the mountain range — 68% of average.

Surveys this week in the Kings River watershed indicate the snowpack just east of Fresno is close to 80% of average, but officials did not sound hopeful. “It would take much-above-average storm activity for the remainder of the season to have a chance at having normal Kings River runoff,” said watermaster Steve Haugen of the Kings River Water Association.

The next chance for snow in the Southern Sierra is Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

Some optimism expressed in the Lodi Sentinel:

Christensen [manager of the Woodbridge Irrigation District] said that farmers are reporting little water stored in the ground. “I’m hoping to get some frequent light rain to get the alfalfa going and the small grain crops,” he said.

Nevertheless, Christensen remains optimistic. “I hate to make any predictions because it’s so early,” he said. “There is such a thing as March miracles.”

Kevin Kauffman, general manager of the Stockton East Water District, which serves Morada and parts of Stockton, predicts that water purveyors will ask people to conserve, especially when it comes to outdoor watering. “But that won’t come until April,” Kauffman said. “We’re going to have to play it by ear — and pray for rain.”

And in Oakland, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which collects a majority of Mokelumne River water, will likely continue the mandatory watering restrictions the district ordered in May, according to district spokesman Jeff Becerra. “If we have average precipitation for the remainder of winter and spring, we could lift the mandatory restrictions,” Becerra said. “It’s possible we may ask for voluntary conservation.”

From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times:

The problem for water managers is not just that the state appears to be in a third consecutive dry winter. It is also that a host of restrictions to protect smelt, salmon and steelhead will make it more difficult to recover from dry conditions even if Mother Nature cooperates.

Big increases in recent years in the amount of water taken from the Delta have contributed to widespread declines in fish populations, and now wildlife protection laws are biting back with tough new regulations on water deliveries.

It appears to be the first serious drought since many of the state’s fish species were added to the list of threatened and endangered species.

“If it was just a drought, a big February or March could take this off the hook. But it’s not just a drought,” said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.

Quinn said it is highly likely that Southern California will have widespread rationing this year — something that has not happened in almost 20 years.

Southern California water agencies should have followed the lead from the Long Beach Water Department, states this editorial from the Long Beach Press Telegram:

They should take a lesson from Long Beach, whose Water Commission implemented a conservation program months ago. But instead of a punitive approach, it enlisted consumers in the effort. The program, among other restrictions, made watering legal only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Offenders got a polite letter as a reminder, and consumers began using a phone line to identify offenders.

Wasting water has become socially unacceptable in Long Beach, and residents seem committed to the plan. There have been only four or five repeated offenders, all of them businesses, and all of which surely will quit wasting water in the face of increasingly stiff fines.

When the smaller water allocations do come down from the MWD, Long Beach won’t have to do a thing to comply. Its residents, now aware how easy it is to reduce water wastage where most of it occurs, on lawns and gardens, already have begun to use this scarce commodity responsibly.

If the MWD and politicians in places like L.A. and San Diego also had acted prudently months ago, Southern California’s reservoirs still would be full, but they didn’t, and the reservoirs are emptying rapidly.

Now there is no other choice.

More information: The DWR snow survey results, reaction from the ACWA & SWC, and the Long Beach Water Department.

January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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One Response to “Coverage wrap-up: Sierra snowpack findings signal a third year of drought; “We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history. It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses,” says Lester Snow”

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