Sky Is Not Falling, as Our Water Level Attests

As the rainy season draws to a close, it is clear that California’s water supplies are in jeopardy. The strong weather patterns that typically drop snow and rain in the mountains of Northern California--a principal source of our drinking water--have not developed.

As a result, vital water supplies that otherwise flow from the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada into the Sacramento and San Joaquin delta, and from there into our water faucets, are estimated at only 56% of normal. On the eastern slopes of the range, where Los Angeles draws the bulk of its water, supplies are also sparse.

Storms in December and early January did allow several key reservoirs to be filled in the northern and southern parts of the state. However, the snowpack that normally replenishes these storage facilities late into the summer will not be available this year. The lowering of reservoirs for agricultural, urban and environmental purposes has already begun, months earlier than usual. This is particularly disturbing because by the end of summer, the amount of water left in storage will only be about half of desirable levels.

What does all this mean for California?

In some parts of the state, there is already talk of shortages and the need for immediate reductions in water use. The East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland has announced that rationing may be required. In Los Angeles, consumers are being advised for the second straight year about dry weather in the Sierra and that conservation today will help avert water-use restrictions later. Generally, though, Southern California should have adequate supplies of water available through this summer, assuming prudent water use is practiced by the 14 million people who live here.

But beyond that, the situation is dire. Without substantial amounts of rain next fall and winter, California could be locked in a disastrous drought that could restrict farming, force rationing upon many city dwellers and generally threaten the economic vitality of the state.

In the past, semi-arid Southern California has managed to avoid the ravages of drought--even during the historic dry period of 1976-77--through wise water management and the development of major water supply and distribution systems. In fact it was this region’s recurring wet and dry cycles that led to our extensive ground-water management programs and the construction of vital arteries to distant water supplies--the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Colorado River Aqueduct and the State Water Project.

Thus, during the 1976-77 drought, Southern California was even able to relinquish a substantial portion of its northern supplies from the State Water Project, allowing about 400,000 acre-feet of water to remain in hard-hit Northern California. The Metropolitan Water District turned heavily to the Colorado River, operating the Colorado River Aqueduct above its design capacity to keep ample supplies available throughout the district’s service area in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Yet for years, Metropolitan and other water agency leaders have warned that the facilities built in the past are not sufficient to meet the needs of the future. New projects proposed to help ensure that adequate supplies would be available for the next generation of Californians have not met with favor. In particular, realization of the next logical increment of the State Water Project--facilities that allow water to move through the delta more efficiently--has been an elusive objective.

The Department of Water Resources was both fortuitous and timely in its recent publication of a bulletin entitled “California Water: Looking to the Future.” That study, in projecting water requirements of the State Water Project through the year 2010, made it clear that a number of projects must go forward if we are to even come close to meeting our future water needs. According to the report, these projects include a new reservoir near Los Banos, improvements to the delta channel system and ground-water storage in Kern County.

No time can be lost in accomplishing these projects if we are to avoid the social and economic disaster that would result from a substantial water shortage in Southern California and other regions of the state. We are encouraged that Gov. George Deukmejian, in a recent speech delivered during the signing of legislation that will improve the delta’s fragile levee system, declared: “California must guarantee reliable supplies of top-quality water to every region of the state. To meet the needs of a growing population, we have to act now.”

The critics of water development have been fond of characterizing our warnings as exaggerated claims that the sky is falling. If Mother Nature holds her course and provides little or no additional rain and snow next winter, history will clearly prove these critics wrong--but only at a tremendous expense to all Californians.