After going so long without meaningful rainfall in this third year of California’s drought, the recent storms and the precipitation they have brought are a welcome change. But, while the rainfall and snow are much needed, the overall quantity of the precipitation as well as where it is falling has limited the impact it is having on the drought.

In the Sacramento Valley, water has been re-managed over the past several decades to provide essential pathways for spawning salmon and steelhead. Nearly every major watercourse in the Sacramento Valley has flow agreements that are designed to benefit salmon and steelhead, while balancing other uses of water for various beneficial purposes. Many of these agreements took decades of hard work by local and state leaders to develop and then implement.

The State Water Board on May 27, 2014 issued curtailment notices to all post-1914 water right holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin watersheds based on the lack of available water supplies. In the last several weeks, the State Water Board has begun a modern, real-time, process to administer these water rights and California’s priority system, which allows more water to be stored in existing reservoirs so it will be available for various uses next year.

Some new thinking on the future role of water storage has emerged in a report on Integrating Storage in California’s Changing Water System. The report advocates for a more integrated approach to surface and groundwater storage where projects are planned, designed, and operated as components of a state-wide water system.