Water Water Everywhere--Right?

So, do we still have a drought or not?

The way rain has been falling this record-setting winter, it’s easy to understand why a reasonable person would conclude that California’s miserable six-year drought is over--and even easier to understand why a reasonable person might conclude that state water officials are downright weird for refusing to come right out and say so.

Last week, for example, officials testifying before the Legislature refused to say that the drought was over--a week after Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power had pronounced it ended.

Why the disparity?

Los Angeles gets some of its water from Northern California rivers that drain the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. However, the city also has supplies--reserved for Los Angeles--on the eastern side of the mountains, where snowfall this winter has been so abundant that the DWP knows it will have adequate runoff for the balance of the year. Even cities as close as San Diego aren’t so fortunate.

So have some pity on California’s water bureaucrats. They live every day with the paradox that our water shortages are structural as well as weather-related: In an arid region with a population that keeps growing, they know that our largely man-made water delivery system must run harder all the time just to keep up.

No matter how much it rains, the water gurus can’t enjoy it--even a brief dry spell could put us back where we were before the skies opened up. So when they constantly warn us about droughts, they aren’t just all wet.