One of the great debates (at least among water issues) over the last few decades has been the value of water storage. Do we build more storage, re-operate existing facilities, or do we take down existing dams? Well, this winter is proving to be a very good reason why we have storage in California and in certain places would benefit from more. Here is what I mean; December of last year brought a torrent of both rain and snow to California with much of that water simply running off the hills and into the creeks, streams and rivers and through the Delta out to the ocean. While we need water flowing through the Delta to maintain water quality, it is those storm flows that create an opportunity to even out the winter peaks (and valleys) with the summer (very dry) valleys.
This year is proving to be an excellent example of how those winter peaks and valleys work. In December the rain gauge here at my northern California office measured 8.6” of rain while during January, that same gauge captured only 0.6” of rain. While the weather, or should I say rain fall, varies every year, this year we were unable to capture what might prove to be the last chance to “stock up,” or “store” water for the balance of the year for all the various purposes—farms, fish, birds, recreation, and cities. This simply shows that Mother Nature has her own way providing the winter rains that the entire State relies on each year.
In northern California, we have the same amount of storage that we had 50 years ago while California has 38 million people and we are heading for 50 million in the next several decades. As a result, we now have much less storage space available for each person. Also, even though we have become much more efficient with our water use, the weather patterns (read uneven rainfall during the winter) suggest the value of this stored water will continue to increase and we need to be more opportunistic with our storage capacity. This means to me that we need additional storage capacity, particularly during dry periods, to capture some of those peak storm flows for use later in the year. We cannot use tomorrow the water that we did not capture today.
