Recent comments by an economics Professor from the University of California Davis projects that “there’s going to be significantly more pain this year than there was last year” with respect to agriculture and the rural parts of the state. Last year, Dr. Howitt suggested that there would be a $2 billion economic impact—this year he “would be very surprised if the economic impact was less than $3 billion.” This will include a loss of more than 20,000 jobs as a result of the drought.

Water agencies throughout the Sacramento Valley have been leaders in progressive water management and environmental stewardship—managing water for farms, birds and fish. Western Canal Water District just south of Chico was recently featured in the ACWA News with a detailed story on how Western Canal has pursued an ethic of environmental stewardship. Through its leadership and water management actions over the past decade, Western Canal provides high quality water for ricelands and other managed wetlands that serve as essential Pacific Flyway habitat.

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has a new webpage on North of Delta Off-stream Storage (Sites Reservoir) that outlines the benefits Sites Reservoir would provide in a drought year like we experienced in 2014.  This off-stream regulating reservoir also has significant compounding value when integrated with other facilities. Sites would have increased the total … Continue reading “DWR Quantifies the Benefits of Sites Reservoir in a Drought Year”

The 2015 water year has been a roller coaster ride, with a very dry January tucked in between big storms in December and early February in Northern California. The hydrologic cycle in California has always been unpredictable, with widely fluctuating wet years and dry years, while average years only exist as part of a statistical analysis on paper. This year is no different, except that California is in the midst of a very dry decade and the public is now focused and some say obsessed with weather and the various forecasts. Now is a good time to take stock of this dynamic and remind ourselves that we need to prepare, but not over-react.