(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20230223-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
Today the entire West Coast shall receive a new storm, which is expected to add more to the very large snowpack in the Sierras and some scattered drenching of rain in the rest of the state. The January storms provided the largest snowpack the state has received in 40 years. Though a mostly dry February saw that snowpack significantly decline.
Still, as the water managers warn, the drought is not over, with the groundwater aquifers continuing to fall to lower and lower levels, and new wells going dry, especially in the Central Valley, continue to add to the more than 1,400 that went dry last year.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows no change from last week, and 84% of the state remains in Moderate to Severe Drought.
A series of articles under the title: “The Drought, the Weather, the Reservoirs and the Snowpack.” provide a good overview for this week.
Next, a little positive news– the farmers in the state will get a little more water this year. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation and the California State Department of Water Resources both announced yesterday that the allocation of water from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project would be raised to 35% for most areas. This is far above the zero or near zero percent that has been delivered the past two years. See the articles for full details.
In addition, the state water board determined that it would accede to Gov. Newsom’s suspension of environmental laws in order to ensure more water entering the Delta would go to storage. That caused the environmentalists to once again throw fits.
On the Colorado River, as reported in the U.S. Drought Monitor this week:
“As of February 21, 2023, the water level in Lake Powell was 3521.53 feet above sea level, which is the lowest level recorded since the lake was filled in the 1960s. As noted by the media, Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir that sits along the Colorado River on the Arizona-Utah border. It generates electricity for about 4.5 million people and is a key part of the Colorado River Basin system, which supplies water to more than 40 million people.”
Otherwise, there is very little to report this week on the negotiations by the seven states sharing the Colorado River water, as negotiations continue among them, and all await the report on what the Bureau of Reclamation will announce as its policy on March 1.
The Los Vegas Review Journal does have a nasty editorial on February 15, “Feds should force California’s hand on water use,” berating California for wishing to save its agricultural sector. While the states appear to be cooperating in negotiations, such an editorial just increases the tension among them.
In the section titled, “Physical Economy,” we present the second of the interviews with my colleague Brian Lantz: “Jump Starting a Recovery with America’s Hidden Store of Skilled Manpower & Manufacturing Pt. 2.”
