Officials increase water allocations as rain hits, drought persists

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Nolan Kopp, 23, of Glendale watches the sun set Thursday over Venice Beach, after rain drenched much of Southern California. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Passing storm clouds provide the backdrop for an early morning stroll on the sand at the Santa Ana River inlet in Newport Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A bulldozer digs out an abandoned SUV encased in mud after an early morning storm sent mud and debris onto Soboba Road in Gilman Springs. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Trash and storm debris are littering the shoreline of the Santa Ana River inlet after two days of rain in Southern California. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Storm clouds still linger shortly after sunrise in Newport Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Three-year-old Jakoby Franklin struggles to see out from his protective blanket while his mother, Jay Johnson, pushes his stroller in downtown Los Angeles under light rain. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Chair lifts sit idled by the rain at Snow Valley Ski Resort in Running Springs, Calif., on Wednesday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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The rain shut down operations at Snow Valley Ski Resort in Running Springs, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Attorney Martin Wolf huddles under his big umbrella to send a text as he makes his way to Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Pedestrians make their way down the main ramp to the Santa Monica Pier during a morning downpour in Santa Monica. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Azusa resident Ed Heinlein sits on the sandbags that surround the back side of his home on Ridge View Drive, recounting his battle with the mud and dirt that flow out of the fire scarred hills above his home every time it rains. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A woman is silhouetted against stormy skies and the San Gabriel Mountains as she walks through the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A pedestrian crosses the rain-slicked street under gray skies in downtown Los Angeles in December. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Umbrella-toting pedestrians cross Broadway at 6th Street as a rainstorm moves through Southern California on Tuesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Pedestrians cross Delacey Avenue at Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena during the rain Tuesday evening. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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A student leaves the Santa Ana College campus as the rain comes down on Tuesday. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

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A light but steady rain slows rush-hour traffic on the 110 Freeway through downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Heavy equipment is used to clear a path for a culvert above a neighborhood in Camarillo Springs on Tuesday. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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A pedestrian in downtown Los Angeles carries a colorful umbrella on Tuesday, Dec. 2. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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A man in a raincoat passes by leaves stuck to a window in the rain in Encino on Tuesday. (Christina House / For The Times)

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Heidi Jang rides her bike along Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles on her way to school during the rainstorm on Tuesday. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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A fallen branch blocks part of the 9700 block of Helen Avenue in the Sunland neighborhood of L.A. during the rainstorm on Tuesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A student at Santa Ana College walks on campus on a rainy afternoon. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

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Silverado Canyon resident Don Panza lines his neighbor’s property with sandbags along Silverado Canyon Road amid mudslide concerns in Silverado Canyon on Tuesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A resident diverts floodwaters away from his side yard during Tuesday’s storm in Glendora. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Standing in ankle-deep muddy water, city worker Spencer Anderson clears debris from a culvert behind a home as floodwaters swirl over sandbags during Tuesday’s rainstorm in Glendora. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Silverado Canyon residents Cathy Panza, left, and Jana Brown walk in the rain in Silverado Canyon. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Heavy equipment is used to clear a path for a culvert above a neighborhood in Camarillo Springs, where the hillsides surrounding the Ventura County community were denuded by fires last year. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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Homeless people try and keep their belongings dry in the rain on skid row in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A woman sits on the sidewalk in the rain near the corner of East 6th and San Pedro streets in skid row in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A man tries to keep warm under blankets near East 6th and San Pedro streets on skid row. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Oliver Svenson, 62, tries to keep dry in the rain on skid row in Los Angeles. He said he is living at the Union Rescue Mission and went outside to watch people. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Silverado Canyon residents Cathy Panza, right, and Jana Brown walk in the rain and look out for rock and mud slides on the hillside on Silverado Canyon Road. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Danny Lopez, left, and Fernando Hacindo, right, work to stem mud and debris flowing down a rock-blocked drain on Dec. 2 on the mountain behind a home that was red-tagged last month after a previous mudslide along San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Camarillo City manager Bruce Feng watches as mud and debris flow down a rock blocked drain on the mountain behind the home that was red tagged last month from a previous mudslide along San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Danny Lopez, right, and Fernando Hacindo, left, place sandbags as mud and debris flow along San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs on Dec. 2. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A CalTrans sign alerts residents of expected heavy rainfall and possible mudslides in a fire-scarred area of Silverado Canyon Dec. 2. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Sandbags share space with the Christmas decorations on a lawn in the 800 block of Rainbow Drive directly below the burn areas in Glendora on Dec. 2. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. Eric Dowd, left, and Sgt. Greg Sharp inspect the hillside behind homes along San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Joe Nasta and wife Monica walk their dog Shepard to their sandbagged San Como Court home in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Ventura County sheriff’s deputies climb a hillside along San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs that suffered a major mudslide last month. Many of the residents in the neighborhood have left under a voluntary evacuation order. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Joel McThomas and his wife, Patty, who live on San Como Lane in Camarillo Springs, move sand bags as residents of the prepare for a rainstorm expected to hit the Southland on Tuesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Dawn Afman, left, and Lana Lundin hoist sandbags to help protect neighbors’ homes in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Crews from Valley Crest Landscaping fill sandbags for residents of Camarillo Springs. Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is concerned that hillsides that burned this year could be at risk of mudslides. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Camarillo city officials examine the home of Henry Needham in San Como Lane. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Camarillo officials look at work going on to clear a drain behind the red-tagged home of resident Henry Needham. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Rock by rock Jose Arminta with a crew from Provision Pipeline work to clear a drain on the hillside behind the red-tagged home of Henry Needham in Camarillo Springs. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Work crews continue to remove mud and debris from a landslide that closed Pacific Coast Highway between Las Posas Road and Yerba Buena in Ventura County. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Work crews continue to remove mud and debris from a landslide that closed Pacific Coast Highway between Las Posas Road and Yerba Buena in Ventura County. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Work crews continue to remove mud and debris from a landslide that closed Pacific Coast Highway between Las Posas Road and Yerba Buena in Ventura County. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Resident Larry Barretta hammers steel stakes into the ground to keep wooden barriers pushed up against sandbags at the end of his driveway in anticipation of Tuesday’s storm on Easley Canyon Road in Glendora. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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A lone visitor to the Griffith Observatory watches as a storm front passes over downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Employees from the Tommy Hilfiger West Hollywood clothing store make their way through the early morning rain after having their Christmas picture taken at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on Sunday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A seagull flies through a rainbow as it arcs over Alamitos Bay in Belmont Shore. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Sunbeams broke through the clouds over oil platforms in the Santa Barbara channel. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

By Matt Stevens

Dec. 2, 2014 1:09 PM PT

The biggest storm of the rain season is fostering optimism among state officials, who increased 2015 water allocations this week in response to improving precipitation forecasts.

On Monday, the Department of Water Resources announced that in 2015 water agencies will receive an initial allocation of 10% of the amount of water they requested from the State Water Project – double the 5% allocation customers received in 2014.

California’s recent storms have increased the water level of Lake Oroville – the “keystone” reservoir of the State Water Project – officials said in a news release. The project is a series of reservoirs, canals and aqueducts that move water from Northern California to the south.

Still, state water experts said it would take about 1.5 times more rainfall than average for California to recover from the current drought. According to the water department, that would mean a total 75 inches of rain from Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015 recorded at eight stations in the northern Sierras.

If dry conditions return, officials cautioned that they could “reallocate State Water Project supplies to meet critical human health and safety needs.”

“Storms in the extended forecast give us hope that we will return this winter to normal or above-normal precipitation levels after three years of drought,” DWR Director Mark Cowin said. “But we must be cautious and preserve adequate storage in reservoirs should conditions turn dry again.”

Almost all areas served by the State Water Project also receive water from other sources, such as streams, groundwater and local reservoirs. But the 5% allocation in 2014 was the lowest amount at the end of a calendar year in the project’s 52-year history, officials said. For comparison, the final allocation for the 2013 calendar year was 35%.

Other parts of the state’s water picture were less rosy. The DWP released an updated report on groundwater basins Tuesday, which showed that in most areas of the state the basins are at historically low levels.

Also Tuesday, officials at the State Water Resources Control Board issued a monthly report on water conservation, announcing that Californians reduced use by 6.7% in October compared to October 2013. Californians cut 11.6% in August and 10.3% in September.

Water board officials said that Southern California was a driver of state water use. While most of the state’s hydrologic regions continued to conserve at consistent rates, the South Coast Hydrologic Region, which includes Los Angeles, reduced its water use only 1.4% in October. During summer months, the region had cut use by as much as 7.8%, helping push statewide water conservation to its highest levels this year.

Despite the recent Southland storms, “it’s not time to relax,” said Eric Oppenheimer, director of the State Water Board’s Office of Research. “We would have definitely liked to have seen better than the 6.7%.”

Follow @MattStevensLAT for California drought coverage, Westside reports and breaking news