![]() It’s going to be tough sledding, to mix metaphors.” “This is what droughts of the future are going to look like. The strategy has been that it’s going to rain and snow and become runoff. “It revealed the weaknesses in our thinking - in our gold rush, year-to-year mentality. We have to be honest about that,” Mount says. Sierra runoff that hydrologists expected to replenish reservoirs simply vanished.Ĭonsequently, some of Northern California’s biggest reservoirs are stashing far-below-average amounts of water for this time of year - Shasta 36%, Oroville 37%, Folsom 42% and New Melones 62%. The Sierra “was basically a dry sponge,” says Jeffrey Mount, a water scientist at the Public Policy Institute of California. That’s what happened last winter and spring. So, snow and rain soak into the soil or evaporate into the air before the water can become runoff that fills foothill reservoirs. The ground and atmosphere have become warmer and drier. The state’s principal watershed, the Sierra, has changed substantially. Meanwhile, we’ve got a different mountain landscape than existed in 1960, let alone 1924. That project has never really been updated to meet population growth. ![]() Pat Brown’s controversial - and long since heralded - State Water Project in 1960, California’s population was less than 16 million. ![]() The fact that we’re the most populous state in the nation is a very mixed blessing and certainly a burden in our efforts to ensure reliable water supply. Newsom declared a statewide drought emergency Tuesday, as officials announced that Californians reduced water use an average of 5% in August. Newsom declares statewide drought emergency, urges California to conserve water ![]()
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