Drought ravages California's water reservoirs ahead of hot summer
By ADAM BEAM
Lake Oroville starts June at drastically low levels
The low water levels are guaranteed to impact summer recreational boating, along with farms in California who rely on water outflows from the lake.
OROVILLE, Calif. - Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation’s crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires.
But now the mighty lake — a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible — is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer.