Commentary: What can help get us through this drought
With very little water available, investments in our state’s water delivery systems coupled with conservation, storage and reuse are critical.
Chandra Chilmakuri
Living in California means living with droughts – there’s no getting around it.
The devastating 2014-15 drought resulted in water shortages for our communities, farms and the environment, prompting California’s water leaders and decision-makers to implement early planning, improved collaboration, added conservation measures and new local supply projects to help balance the water needs of people and fish in preparing for the drought that is currently before us.
April Storm Front Brings Showers, Allergy Relief To San Francisco Bay Area
CBS SF Bay Area 4 hrs ago Syndicated Local – CBS San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) While it won’t be a drought buster, an April storm front rolling into Northern California early Sunday will bring much needed showers and allergy relief to the San Francisco Bay Area and dump over a foot of snow in the higher elevations of the Sierra.
Forecasters say it would take several storms the size of the weekend weather front to break the grip a severe to extreme drought has across the Bay Area.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an emergency drought declaration for two California counties while standing on the historically dry bed of Lake Mendocino, a few hours north of San Francisco. I m standing currently 40 feet underwater, or should be standing 40 feet underwater, the governor said, noting that the reservoir is at just 43% of its normal capacity.
Newsom fell short of declaring a statewide emergency but signed a lengthy executive order outlining preparations the state is making following a second consecutive year of exceedingly dry conditions.
Mendocino and Sonoma counties along California s northern coast were selected because their water systems are more reliant upon rainfall than communities served by California s major canal systems, which rely on Sierra Nevada snowmelt, state leaders said.
Newsom Declares Drought Emergency In Sonoma and Mendocino Counties
Governor Gavin Newsom went to Lake Mendocino on Wednesday to make an announcement on the state s first effort to address the current drought and it s starting with a targeted drought emergency declaration for two NorCal counties.
Marin County s water district already announced its own emergency on Tuesday, and said that mandatory water-use restrictions will be coming for about two-thirds of county residents beginning on May 1. But as happened in 2015/2016, this drought is all but guaranteed to become a statewide emergency, with restrictions eventually coming down from the governor s office.
There aren t any mandatory restrictions just yet, however. Newsom said at the press conference that the state was declaring a drought conditions state of emergency for Mendocino and Sonoma counties only, but he didn t elaborate on what may be to come from that declaration.