Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday significantly expanded his April 21 drought emergency proclamation to include Klamath River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Tulare Lake Watershed counties where accelerated action is needed to protect public health, safety and the environment.
In total, 41 counties including Lake are now under a drought state of emergency, representing 30 percent of the state’s population.
Climate change-induced early warm temperatures and extremely dry soils have further depleted the expected runoff water from the Sierra-Cascade snowpack, resulting in historic and unanticipated reductions in the amount of water flowing to major reservoirs, especially in Klamath River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Tulare Lake Watershed counties.
California expands drought emergency to large swath of state
This article is provided courtesy of the Associated Press.
California / United States of America – September 2015: Drying lake in the dessert. (Magdalena Geraghty)
May 10, 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday expanded a drought emergency to a large swath of the nation’s most populous state while seeking more than $6 billion in multiyear water spending as one of the warmest, driest springs on record threatens another severe wildfire season across the American West.
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The Democratic governor said he is acting amid “acute water supply shortages” in northern and central parts of California as he called again for voluntary conservation. Yet the state is in relatively better shape than it was when the last five-year drought ended in 2017, he said, as good habits have led to a 16% reduction in water usage.
Drought Emergency Extended to 41 California Counties
The drought is expected to lead to a heightened fire season in a state that blasted records last year; decrease available water for agriculture; and present threats for fish and wildlife habitats.
May 11, 2021 •
Gary Coronado/TNS
(TNS) - In a stark indication of California’s growing water crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a drought emergency in 41 counties, including areas of the Central Valley that had urged action on behalf of agricultural growers.
Newsom’s proclamation dramatically expands the drought emergency he declared in Sonoma and Mendocino counties last month, and now covers 30% of the state’s population.
California expands drought emergency to large swath of state
May. 11, 2021 at 6:00 am
DON THOMPSON, Associated Press
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday expanded a drought emergency declaration to a large swath of the nation’s most populated state amid “acute water supply shortages” in northern and central parts of California.
The declaration now covers 41 of 58 counties, covering 30% of California’s nearly 40 million people. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows most of the state and the American West is in extensive drought just a few years after California emerged from a punishing multiyear dry spell.
Officials fear an extraordinarily dry spring presages a wildfire season like last year, when flames burned a record 6,562 square miles (16,996 square kilometers).
Drought emergency declared in Central Valley, Klamath region
Rachel Becker
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a drought emergency in 39 additional California counties, including most of the parched Central Valley and Klamath River area.
The declaration comes amid mounting pressure from lawmakers and growers in the Central Valley, who this year are receiving only 5% of their expected water allocationsfrom the state. Growers say the sharp cutbacks in state and federal water supplies will mean they will suffer huge economic losses and be forced to fallow fields and sell off cattle.
A bipartisan group of Central Valley lawmakers wrote to Newsom in April pushing for a statewide emergency that would give the state more flexibility in granting water transfers. They also sought easing of some rules for reservoir releases, which would “allow for more water to go to communities throughout the state.”