by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20220324-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf?_t=1648178691
A Note to Readers
As reported last week, the drought is spreading to more areas of the country and intensifying. The U.S. Drought Monitor map below of the entire U.S. mainland, demonstrates that fact. More than 60% of the nation is now experiencing drought.
As for California, as noted last week, the portion of the state now in :”Extreme Drought” had increased from 13% to 35% in one week. A little more was added to that designation this week. It is now almost 38%.
Alarm bells continue to ring as the drought intensifies and spreads, with some claiming that the entire West is now in a megadrought.
The snowpack throughout the Sierras is 60% of the average for this date of the year, and the major water reservoirs in the state are well below their historical averages.
That will mean, and we see almost daily announcements of more and more water restrictions, with even 20,000 tier one farmers being informed that they will get no water this year. Tier one is the highest category for priority in receiving water. See this article on page 8: “California considers water restrictions after three years of drought.”
After “only” more than a decade, a major water storage project moves a little closer to beginning construction. This week the federal government announced that the Site’sreservoir is on track for a $2.2B federal loan.
Still the project, even if begun in the next two or three years, will not be completed until 2030. Again, managing a crisis, not solving it, is the order of the day.
We have an interesting article providing some historical and operational background on the Shasta Dam, which is on page 10: “Why we watch Shasta Dam.”
As we have reported, Lake Powell behind Diablo Canyon Dam on the Colorado River has reached a critical point where the falling reservoir level threatens the potential that it may become a “dead pool,” unable to provide water for farms and population centers and unable to produce electricity. An article this week goes into more detail on that development.
On page 13, we remind readers that the Carlsbad desalination plant in San Diego County produces ten percent of the water used in the county. A second, sister plant to be built at Huntington Beach south of Los Angeles may receive final approval this month or next month. That is after nearly 20 years of delays by law suits and bureaucratic hoops to jump through.
The report concludes with, “Is California Now At War With Farms?” which is the first of two articles on the topic, demonstrating that yes, the state and especially the environmentalists do wish to shut down the agricultural powerhouse of the Central Valley.
