CNN —
California’s drought-stricken reservoirs have made a remarkable recovery after a spate of storms battered the state last month. Officials say this is a much-needed improvement after it has hovered at critically low levels in recent years.
Lake Oroville, California’s most-harmed and second-largest reservoir, experienced a tremendous boom after the climate change-induced mega-drought sucked away almost all of its water supply.
Before-and-after photos show an incredible improvement in the reservoir, which this week was at 115% of the historical average for the date – a notable jump from just 61% in February 2021 and 77% in 2022.
The before images show a “bathtub ring” of dirt at the edge of the lake, showing how far the water level has dropped. At the end of January, the after pictures showed that the bathtub ring was underwater again.
“However, every day that it doesn’t rain or snow during our wettest months, we dry up,” Margaret Mohr, deputy communications director for the California Department of Water Resources, told CNN.
“A lot of uncertainty remains over the next two months and water managers are standing by reservoirs to hold as much water as possible while also managing flood control requirements and preparing for the spring runoff.”
California has been in dire need of rain for years to refill its reservoirs. In August 2021, the situation at Lake Oroville was so dire that a major hydroelectric power plant had to be shut down due to low water for the first time since it opened in 1967.
The reservoir collapsed in 2021 to just 24% of total capacity. The lake’s water level was well below boat ramps and exposed intake pipes used to channel water to power the rig.
The shutdown of the Edward Hyatt power plant was a wake-up call to how significant the drought had become.
According to the California Energy Commission, the plant is the fourth-largest hydroelectric power producer in the country and can power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity. As of 2018, around 13% of the country’s electricity was generated by hydroelectric power plants.
Though Oroville’s water levels stayed well below average in 2022, storms last winter brought record-breaking rainfall to the Sierra Nevada, giving lake levels a much-needed boost.
Rainfall was enough to restart power generation at the power station in January 2022 after it was shut down for about five months.
The California Department of Water Resources operates the State Water Project system, which includes Lake Oroville, providing water to 29 public water agencies serving 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland.
While the drought persisted across much of the state, officials still had to find a way to conserve California’s rapidly dwindling water supply. They announced in May 2022 that water agencies relying on the state project would receive only 5% of the water requests that went into effect in December 2022 and were due to go through this year.
Water authorities have been urged to enact mandatory water use restrictions to extend their available supplies.
Following this winter’s storms, the California State Water Board announced in late January that it would increase allocated water deliveries to 30% of requested water deliveries this year.
The State Water Project’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Oroville and San Luis — reclaimed a total of 1.62 million acre-feet of water, which is roughly enough water for 5.6 million homes for an entire year. An acre foot is the amount of water needed to go one acre deep per foot – approximately 326,000 gallons.
While the rise in water levels in Lake Oroville represents good news for California residents and farmers who depend on the reservoir, experts have said the state will need much more rainfall to make up the years-long deficit from the West’s historic drought .
Groundwater, in particular, has recovered much more slowly than reservoirs. These subterranean aquifers that much of California’s Central Valley depends on still have a long way to go before they are fully replenished by the ongoing, unrelenting drought.
Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, warned during the state’s snow cover survey on February 1 this month that it doesn’t look promising for more rain and snow.
“I would like to point out that this is a traditionally wet month that actually starts off quite dry – and given the forecasts, the drought is expected to continue,” she said.
“What is happening to the climate is the timing of that peak [precipitation] changing too,” added Nemeth. “So we really don’t know here on February 1st whether or not that is the peak of our snow cover – and these are really important data points that help us with water management in California.”
Lake Oroville is just one piece of the puzzle in the larger western water crisis. While the storms have helped reservoirs across much of California, the Colorado River Basin — which supplies water to around 40 million people in seven western states and Mexico — is drying up at an alarming rate.
The Colorado River feeds Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s two largest reservoirs. Record low water levels in both lakes have prompted mandatory water cuts in some western states over the past year. Lake Powell hit a new record low this month and Lake Mead hovered just above last year’s record low.
All of this is an example of how human-caused climate change is altering water systems around the world, driving up temperatures and making droughts more severe and frequent.
“Over the next two months, it’s important that we continue to see regular rain and snowstorms to maintain an above-average pace for our precipitation totals,” Mohr said.
Source: www.cnn.com
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