(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20230112-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
With dozens of headlines like this one: “Will the West Coast storms mean the end of California’s drought? ,” the five atmospheric river storms since New Year’s Eve, and two or three more in a train of storms expected in the next few days, climatologists and others have been busy responding.
Of course, the answer is, “No,” and even if the rest of the winter is at least moderately wet, that still will not end the drought. After the three driest years on record, and that being the fourth multi-year drought in this century, flooding and even increased reservoir levels, what is required is several years of above average rain and snowfall.
While California is being drenched, the Colorado River watershed is getting some precipitation from the atmospheric rivers, and even an above average snowpack in the Rocky Mountains for this time of the year. But, as with California, the rest of the rainy season is yet to come, and forecasts for that are still trending toward a below average winter of precipitation.
While these storms have provided the largest snowpack on record for this time of the year, that still is not one-half the level required to be average in April.
California relies on pumping groundwater for 30% or more of its water for irrigation and the cities during average rain years. During droughts that rises to about 60%. Over the last several decades the pumping of groundwater has lowered the aquifers that groundwater comes from. It will required years of above average precipitation to even begin to reverse that.
For those unfamiliar with the consequences of over-pumping groundwater, what California has been experiencing throughout the state are wells that go dry (1,400 in 2022 alone); and soil subsidence, where the ground level falls, sometimes several feet in a year, causing damage to roads, bridges, and electrical and water infrastructure. Such repairs cost many hundreds of billions to repair. In addition, many creeks and rivers receive some of their flow from groundwater, so the volume of flow of those waterways decreases.
In addition to some new material in this report below, I recommend reading last week’s report for more background and additional reporting on the storms, flooding, reservoirs and the nature of atmospheric rivers and “bomb cyclones.”
Farmers have long complained that the state and federal water bureaucracy have mismanaged water supplies to agriculture. One of the most blatant cases of mismanagement is the refusal of both government bodies to pump water from the Bay Delta into the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project aqueducts. A more blatant example of this mismanagement has been seen during the last two weeks, as the flow of water into the Delta from the Sacramento and other rivers has been massive. Yet very little of that has been sent to storage through the aqueducts.
The article, “Calif. flushed 95% of incoming Delta water to Pacific Ocean during Monday’s massive storm,” you will find under this section below,“Why Bureaucratic Rules Are Insane: The Rules on Pumping Water to Central Valley Farms,” provides the evidence of how bureaucratic rules for Delta water management allows hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water to flow into the Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Some of California’s members of Congress are now demanding that these rules be suspended or canceled entirely. Will that occur? Unlikely, at least until we have governments at both levels that will rip up such rules and act sane once again.
All is not negative though, as this short news video reports that some progress is being made on the Sites Reservoir, which will be able to store up to two million acre feet of water: “New mega California reservoir is in final planning phase. When completed, the long-proposed, $4 billion Sites Reservoir will hold enough water to feed the needs of five million homes a year or a half million acres of farmland.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzd-4BO_VUw
We should mention that Governor Newsom announced this week that last year’s $100 billion plus surplus in the state budget has disappeared and that this year we begin with a $22.5 billion deficit, which will mean cuts in all the climate change and other programs so loved by the environmentalists.
The rest of the report:
We begin with the U.S. Drought Monitor for California. The statistics grid below the map show a dramatic improvement of the state’s drought intensity, especially comparing this week with three months ago. Yet, still, 95% of the state is in at least “Moderate Drought.”
Next are a number of articles discussing the storms, the flooding, the reservoirs and snowpack.
Then comes the reports from the Colorado River.
The Feature this week is from my colleague Kesha Rogers: “Biden’s Greenies Attack the TVA.”
