Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
February 29, 2008
1. Top Items
Snowpack not satisfying state water officials - San Francisco Chronicle
Snowpack confirms it: no drought in
Sierra snowpack above normal, but reservoirs are low - Sacramento Bee
Snow boosts farmers' outlook; Storms raise readings and elevate hopes for more water deliveries this year - Fresno Bee
Sierra snowpack level bodes well for water supply - San Diego Union Tribune
Snowpack not satisfying state water officials
San Francisco Chronicle – 2/29/080
By Charles Burress, staff writer
The Sierra snowpack continues to exceed normal levels, which is good news for skiers and the state's water users, but water officials say it's not enough to wipe out the state's water-supply deficit.
A sampling of four Sierra monitoring stations Wednesday and Thursday showed snow levels ranging between 110 and 138 percent of normal for this time of year, compared with a 74 to 85 percent range at the same time last year, the state Department of Water Resources reported.
Estimated water content of the snowpack is at about 120 percent of normal, compared with 68 percent last year, said Elissa Lynn, a department meteorologist.
Thursday's results are the latest in monthly snowpack surveys. In the last survey, at the end of January, the results for all of the Sierra's 260 monitoring stations showed the snowpack water content at 131 percent of normal,
But even with the extra snow, the state's reservoirs are not expected to fill up this year because of the shortages last year, when the water content of the peak snowpack on April 1 was only 40 percent,
In addition, she said, even though recent snowfall has been greater than normal, it is offset by unusually low amounts of rain and snow starting last October, so the year's cumulative runoff is expected to be lower than usual. The predicted runoff for the year ending Oct. 1 this year is 77 percent of normal; 85 percent would be needed to make up for last year's shortfall, Lynn said.
The state's major reservoirs currently are about half full on average, she said.
In related news, state water officials announced Thursday they will need to further reduce water pumped from the delta starting immediately to comply with a federal court order limiting water exports to Southern California, the Bay Area and
The amount of water pumped to communities and farms will be reduced to about a fourth of the amount normally exported this time of year to protect delta smelt, the Department of Water Resources said.
The reduction is in line with predictions developed after the federal court order in December, said department Deputy Director Jerry Johns. Water officials said the reduction "initially will last up to seven days" and will reduce the amount of water that can be allocated this year by 11 to 30 percent.
Laura King Moon, spokeswoman for the nonprofit State Water Contractors, which represents 27 public agencies that purchase the water, said the agencies have sufficient water in storage to absorb the restrictions this year but could not easily do so "for more than a couple of years."
The impacts of any water shortages this year will depend in part on policies of individual water agencies and the availability of other sources of water, including groundwater and outside purchases,
Of the four Central Sierra monitoring stations where snow depth was reported Thursday, the lowest-elevation measurement, Tamarack Flat at 6,500 feet, showed 92.4 inches, 127 percent of normal for this time of year, compared with last year's level, which was 79 percent of normal. The highest station, Alpha at 7,600 feet, registered 85.9 inches, or 110 percent of normal.
Many water agencies, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, have water-allocation plans in case of drought. This month the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California adopted a new allocation plan, though district officials said they don't expect it to be needed this year.
The snowpack surveys are a key tool for making water forecasts for water consumers, including agriculture, the hydroelectric industry and recreational water users.
The smallest peak snowpack on record for April 1 was 25 percent of normal in 1977, while the largest, 225 percent, was recorded in 1969 and 1983,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/29/BAFDVARPV.DTL&hw=water&sn=007&sc=1000
Snowpack confirms it: no drought in
By Julie Sevrens Lyons and Paul Rogers, staff writers
As state snow surveyors measured the snowpack at a meadow along Highway 50 in the
The snowfall season should end above average - and that means Californians, warned to brace themselves after an exceptionally dry 2007, almost certainly won't face water shortages this summer.
That's right. No dirty cars. No brown lawns. And no saving the bath water.
"Fears should be put to rest," said snow surveyor Dave Hart of the state Department of Water Resources. "There's no way you could say we're in any kind of drought."
Mostly because of three heavy storms that smothered the high country with snow in January and February, the Sierra snowpack is 118 percent of normal for this date, officials from the Department of Water Resources reported.
By comparison, last year at this time the snowpack was 63 percent of normal.
"It's a good positive sign for water supplies for the summer," said Frank Gehrke, a hydrologist with the state Department of Water Resources, as he measured the density and water content of the snow at Phillips Station in El Dorado County near South Lake Tahoe.
The station is one of more than 200 state sites where hydrologists measure snowpack to get a sense of how much water to expect in
"Obviously, being greedy folks, we'd like to see more storm activity," Gehrke said, "but considering where we started from on Jan. 1, this has been a very good year."
The snow is essentially "money in the bank" for farmers, cities and businesses that depend on regular water deliveries every summer. Even if it didn't snow again through the winter season, the state would still begin the spring season April 1 with a snowpack roughly 102 percent of normal - unless an unusually hot and sunny March causes significant melting, according to state estimates.
Those estimates come as a major relief to water districts around the state, including in the Bay Area. Last year, districts in Silicon Valley, the
The fear was that if this year also had lower-than-normal snowfall, the state would be in a drought, with mandatory water rationing needed for the first time since the drought of 1987-92.
So far this rain season,
Despite the wet weather, officials with
"This year's strong snowpack is certainly good news since we rely on it to provide half our drinking water.
However, we need to pump that water from the delta and there are restrictions on how much can be pumped," said Susan Siravo, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Even though the district's 10 reservoirs are 72 percent full and continuing to rise, Siravo said the district remains concerned about a federal judge's decision in fall 2007 requiring state and federal agencies to reduce pumping from the delta to protect an endangered fish known as the delta smelt.
"That decision means we could get as much as 20 to 30 percent less water from the delta than we normally get," she said.
Feb. 4, the state Department of Water Resources said delta pumping was being cut 15 percent to customers of the State Water Project because of the smelt. That number could drop further if snow and rain continue in March.
This month, however, another endangered species wild card surfaced. The state Fish and Game Commission began considering adding another fish, the longfin smelt, to
"That adds another layer of uncertainty," Siravo said.
"It may make sense for us to revisit that request for voluntary conservation in June or July," Siravo said.
But she noted that any new delta restrictions because of fish could change that, and that water conservation in general is good practice because it saves energy and helps the district meet demand as population grows. #
http://origin.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_8403658
Sierra snowpack above normal, but reservoirs are low
By Bill Lindelof, staff writer
Recent storms in the mountains have kept snowpack levels above normal, according to the latest Sierra snow survey.
Results of a survey conducted Thursday by the California Department of Water Rescources showed that the Sierra snowpack is at 118 percent of normal for this time of year.
"
Meanwhile,
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/750060.html
Snow boosts farmers' outlook; Storms raise readings and elevate hopes for more water deliveries this year
By Russell Clemings and Dennis Pollock, staff writers
Recent storms have boosted southern
"The snowpack is the key for us," said Kathi Woodward, an Easton-area farmer and dairy operator. "It means we'll have to pump less ground water, it's better for the environment, and it's a lot less costly for us. All around, it's been great."
Thanks to the snowpack -- which already exceeds typical annual peaks -- the Fresno Irrigation District will begin delivering water Saturday, two months earlier in the season than last year, officials said this week.
A dry year that severely limited Kings River runoff meant farmers received just three months of water deliveries last season. This year, they're expected to get water for six months.
But with reservoir levels still recovering from last year's parched conditions, it may be too early to say that
"The delta is still the Achilles heel in this thing," said Mark Borba, a Riverdale grower. Protections of the delta smelt last year brought restrictions in deliveries of water to west side farmers. And still more curbs could result from the listing this month of the longfin smelt by the state as an endangered species.
A generation of restrictions to protect endangered species has made full allocations of water increasingly rare on the west side. As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week issued a preliminary Central Valley Project water allocation of 45% of farmer contract amounts, with 75% of contract amounts predicted for the system's municipal and industrial users.
Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said those percentages could rise. But reservoir levels in the Central Valley Project system still remain lower than is typical for this time of year, he said.
Excluding Millerton, overall CVP storage is 6.8 million acre-feet, compared with 8.9 million acre-feet at this time last year, McCracken said.
"We went into this year with fairly low storage in our reservoirs, and we're just starting to pull ourselves out of it," McCracken said.
On the east side, the outlook is brighter.
Users of water from the Bureau of Reclamation's
On the next watershed south, the
"I'd say in the current situation, we're just about normal," said Kings River Watermaster Steve Haugen. But he added that to ensure a robust water flow, "we still need a good two or three storms." #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/431297.html
Sierra snowpack level bodes well for water supply
By Robert Krier, staff writer
The amount of water in the state's snowpack, called the snow-water equivalent, was 118 percent of normal Wednesday, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
“It's a pretty good picture,” said Maury Roos, a hydrologist who has been with the department for 50 years. “Even if it melts early in March, we have enough reservoir space now that we'll be able to catch most of it. It won't be lost, either way you look at it.”
Local water officials are encouraged by the hefty snowpack, but they say the impact on the local water supply will be hard to determine until mid-April.
Three feet of snow fell on some of the higher reaches of the Sierra last weekend. That followed a steady stream of storms this winter than have marched through the mountains.
The snow-water level is at 102 percent of the average for April 1, which is the key date for state hydrologists, who base their water-distribution plans for the year on April 1 levels.
Last year at this time, the snow-water equivalent level was at 60 percent of the April 1 average. An exceptionally dry March dropped the level to 40 percent of normal by April 1. March usually adds 12 percent to the state's average snowpack, Roos said.
No significant storms are in the forecast for the next week, but Roos said there are no big hot spells on the horizon, either. He expects more storms before the spring melt.
“It would be a very strange year if we didn't get more,” said Roos. “There's never been a year when we've had it shut off completely on March 1.”
Another encouraging sign for local water suppliers is that the
But San Diego County Water Authority officials say it's too early to drop concerns over local water supplies for the coming year, despite the promising snow levels.
“Compared to where we were a year ago, that's really good news,” said John Liarakos, spokesman for the authority.
“But it's still a little bit of a crap shoot. We still have a way to go to get back to what I consider whole.”
Water deliveries to
Lindbergh Field,
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080229-9999-1m29snowpack.html
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