Storms Could Ease Severity of Water Rationing
Recent storms that drenched Northern California brought substantial runoff to local reservoirs, enough in some cases to ease the threat of more stringent water restrictions.
But water officials remain cautious in the fifth year of a drought.
Reservoirs in Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, were up to 44% of capacity Tuesday, a big jump from the 31% recorded only two weeks ago. Santa Clara County’s reservoirs were at 16.6%, up from 10% in the same period.
“We’ve gotten almost 16,000 acre-feet of new water since our last storm,” said Juana Guevara of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “Once the ground gets saturated, then we get the good runoff.”
Guevara wasn’t ready to declare an end to the drought, but said the runoff could mean officials won’t have to implement stricter rationing guidelines.
Heavy weekend rain boosted the level of San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir from 7% of capacity to 11%. Even the huge Central Valley Water Project has gone from 49% to 52% of capacity.
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