Conservation Plans Dusted Off by December Drought

A decidedly dry December has evaporated hopes that October rains might have ended California’s drought, and state water officials are starting to urge renewal of conservation programs and limited rationing in some areas.

Hardest hit is the area from Monterey to Santa Barbara, where one reservoir has run dry, others have shrunk to as little as 12% of capacity and the ground water table has fallen “drastically”--as much as 15 feet--as wells are asked to work overtime.

Mandatory cuts of 20% in water use have been made law in Monterey and Santa Barbara counties, with cuts of 40% only two or three months away. Elsewhere in the state, water agencies are dusting off conservation plans that were shelved after unseasonable storms of only a few months ago.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the traditionally busy Christmas-New Year holiday, Sierra resorts have scaled back skiing and other snow activities. One southern Sierra facility may have a hard time opening its downhill runs at all, while Tahoe-area resorts will do so only by spreading a film of machine-produced snow over a thin base.

Statewide, the drought information center in Sacramento reports that runoff has been a disappointing 65% of normal since September and reservoirs are well below half full. Central Valley farmers have been warned not to count on their usual irrigation supplies as that water is shifted to cities.

“We are facing the driest December we’ve ever seen,” said Larry Foy, vice president of the California-American Water Co. on the Monterey Peninsula. “We have not had a December entirely without rain--ever--and we have had no rain at all so far.”

The peninsula, including Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel, usually enjoys four inches of rain in December, about one-fifth of its annual total. Late-season rains in March and early rains in October were only enough to stem the fall in reservoir levels, not enough to raise them or ease restrictions, Foy said.

The situation is worse in Santa Barbara, where the Gibraltar Reservoir near Montecito has been exhausted and Lake Cachuma is at its lowest point ever, 30% of capacity. Local officials there have been worried enough to consider-- and, for now, reject--a costly plan to import water from Canada in tanker ships.

Bill Helms of the state Department of Water Resources said a number of other regions of the state, including the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin, are also “critically dry” and must get rain this year to avoid serious and--in the case of overdrafted aquifers where pesticides and fertilizers are being concentrated--perhaps permanent problems.

“The problem is that it started well, but it hasn’t kept pace with what it should have,” Helms said of the current rainy season, which had a promisingly drizzly debut in September but then slid into a dismal series of sunny days.

Clear skies not only meant no rain, they meant dry winter winds are free to eat voraciously at the Sierra snowpack and thus threaten runoff in the spring. Helms said the statewide snowpack dipped from above average in October to only 35% of normal at the beginning of December.

It has been shrinking daily since, as resort operators know. Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park, for example, indefinitely delayed the traditional Dec. 10 opening of its downhill runs for lack of snow and has limited cross-country skiing to 20 kilometers of trails. The park has trimmed back the number of snowshoe excursions, although ice skating is said to be exceptional.

Despite all of this, Helms said, it’s “too early to panic.” Just ahead lie the typically soggy months of January and February, and he noted that “a lot can happen in a short time.” In 1986, for example, the state received half of its normal annual precipitation in just 10 stormy days. Also, the construction of several major dams and reservoirs makes it unlikely that the state will suffer as much as it did during the 1976-77 drought.

Orange County, so far, has not been threatened by water problems, although the San Clemente area suffered a brief shortage last summer.

The Tri-Cities Municipal Water District, which serves San Clemente and the Capistrano Beach portion of Dana Point, found last July and August that water in its central reservoir was being consumed by users faster then it could be replaced by its single supply pipeline.

The shrinking reservoir triggered voluntary conservation during the summer. San Clemente officials approved a plan for mandatory water rationing that would be put into action if another reservoir crisis occurs.

Dan Bowman, a forecaster for the private WeatherData Inc. in Wichita, Kan., said there is some promise of rain early in January if a storm system forming in the mid-Pacific gains enough strength to muscle through the stubborn high-pressure ridge that has diverted other storms north to Oregon, Washington and western Canada.

“It (rain) does look more likely early in January than in any time in the past month,” he said. Because the system would not arrive for 10 to 12 days, it is difficult to predict accurately how much rain, if any, it will bring or how far south rains might fall.

“It doesn’t have a real high probability of happening,” he said, “but it is better than flipping a coin.”

The high-altitude high-pressure ridge blocking winter storms from the state also generated the prolonged period of Santa Ana winds that whipped Southern California this fall, Bowman said. But, he added, the winds themselves were not responsible for the lack of rainfall.

If it is too early to panic, Helms said, it is not too early to be concerned--and vigilant about conserving. Surface supplies, at 44% of capacity, must be used sparingly because no one knows when rain will return to normal, he warned.

Helms said Lake Oroville--the main source of Northern California water for homes and businesses in metropolitan Southern California--is 1 million acre-feet below what he said is its preferred level. One acre-foot contains 325,800 gallons, a year’s supply for a suburban family of four.

Santa Barbara relies on Lake Cachuma for most of its water needs. That lake was designed to tolerate a seven-year drought, the longest-known when the reservoir was created. But James Stubchaer, a consultant for the Santa Barbara County Water Purveyors Assn., said the county has not had an adequate wet year in six years.

“We have enough--barely--to maybe tolerate one more year (of drought),” Stubchaer said. “The problem is we don’t know if (the drought) will last six years or seven--or eight or more.”

Because of this, cuts may have to slice deeper than the relatively painless adjustments already accomplished--the attachment of low-flow shower heads and retirement of yard sprinklers, water managers said.

A DRY SEASON

Santa Barbara rainfall in inches per month:

MONTH AVG. 1989 January 4.28 0.35 February 3.72 2.53 March 2.49 0.90 April 1.50 0.34 May 0.30 0.39 June 0.07 0.05 July 0.01 0.00 August 0.03 0.00 September 0.23 0.08 October 0.26 0.55 November 2.13 0.66 December 2.68 0.00 TOTAL 17.70 5.85