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Late winter storms boost water supplies a bit

Posted by: Maven on March 19, 2009 at 8:32 am

Here is the picture which accompanies the LA Times article.  It’s a picture of a canal in El Centro, which anyone who knows how water moves around this state, knows it has nothing to do whatsoever with the State Water Project, which is what this story is about.  Yes, due to some fabulous old water rights, this canal will stay full, even if Arizona and Las Vegas, and yes, even Southern California go dry.  Maybe it’s just to tease us …. Anyway, here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times:

State officials announced Wednesday they will deliver more water to Southern California this year than previously predicted but cautioned that shipments will remain well below normal.

State water resources director Lester Snow said “a series of very beneficial storms in February and early March” prompted his department to increase allocations to water agencies by 5%. Snow’s characterization of the state’s water supply was not as bleak as earlier in the winter, but he said water managers remained “very concerned.” “We still consider we are in a drought and need to take special actions,” Snow said.

With the winter storms, statewide snowpack has grown to 86% of average for this date. Reservoir storage is 75% of the norm and statewide precipitation levels are nearly normal.

Lake Oroville, the state system’s biggest reservoir, contains more water than it did at this time last year. But San Luis, another important reservoir that holds water for both the state and federal systems, contains only about half what it usually does at this point.

Allocation levels will be reviewed next month and in May, but Snow said he did not anticipate an increase.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Snow and others said a series of storms between February 12 and March 5 helped boost snow depth and reservoir levels. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, the main source of the state’s water supply, is about 90 percent of normal; water levels in the state’s main reservoirs are about 55 percent of capacity.

But the recent precipitation was not enough to offset an extremely dry start to the winter or the two parched years before that. The forecast for runoff, the melt waters that flow into municipal water systems, is 64 percent of normal – the third below-normal year in a row.

Snow and others said several other factors are adding stress to a water system that dates back 150 years in some places.

Federal orders to protect endangered fish species have cut the amount of water pumped through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by about one-third. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Delta pumps with the state, said last month it would deliver about 50 percent of the usual water allotment to cities this year; farmers would receive no federal water.

Meanwhile, the demand-supply equation for water in California has changed as a result of more-volatile weather patterns brought on by global warming, 9 million more residents since the last drought in the early 1990s, a shift to crops that are vulnerable to water shortages and four new fish species on the endangered species list, Snow said.

“It’s not just an issue of measuring snowpack or measuring runoff,” Snow told reporters in a conference call Wednesday. “It’s multiple dry years in a row. It’s a watershed that’s not as healthy as it was 10 years ago.”

San Diego is prepared for the worst, according to the San Diego Union Tribune:

There appears to be growing acceptance that San Diego County water users will be under rationing this summer, with customers probably being asked to cut back 10 percent of their usage. If that figure holds, the San Diego County Water Authority – which serves most of the county residents – could potentially lose 50,000 acre-feet based on last year’s purchases, enough to serve 100,000 homes for a year.

“We’re prepared,” said Marsi Steirer, a top official in the city of San Diego’s water department. “It’s doable.”

It could have been worse. Encouraged by a series of Sierra snowstorms from late February through early March, the state Department of Water Resources announced yesterday that it will slightly ease anticipated cutbacks to water agencies.

“Any increase helps,” said Bud Pocklington, a member of the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District and San Diego water authority boards. “But it’s still not enough.”

March 19, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, State Water Project (DWR)

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