California has seen historic storms over the previous couple of weeks. The Sierras have been pounded with a number of toes of snow, and huge swaths of the state noticed extreme flooding.
Despite the struggles with flooding, state officials say there may be good news: drought and water storage situations are bettering.
“From a statewide perspective, the overall statewide reservoir storage is about 84% of historical average, reported out yesterday it was at 81% of average. So again, these storms are continuing across the state to help with our reservoir storage levels,” stated Molly White with the California Department Of Water Resources.
The two largest reservoirs, Shasta and Oroville, are up within the northern a part of the state and that is the place the storms hit hardest.
On Tuesday, they rose to 70% and 88% of historic levels. Just a month in the past, the levels have been solely about 55% for this time of 12 months.
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“So each day we are creeping closer to average conditions,” stated White.
Here in Southern California, the reservoirs are likely to work slightly bit otherwise.
Go to Pyramid Lake and also you is perhaps questioning why the levels aren’t growing. That’s as a result of these reservoirs are actually constructed to carry the water earlier than it is distributed.
“These are really regulating reservoirs that we typically keep pretty stable throughout the year… So they’ll fluctuate a little bit, but the purpose of those are just a little bit different. They’re helping to sustain the system in our water deliveries whereas, Oroville, our largest reservoir up north, that’s a multi-purpose reservoir for your water supply, flood control, as well as other environmental requirements,” White stated.
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The three fundamental reservoirs in our space are literally fairly near historic levels, very near 100%. Castaic, for instance, is as much as 62% and a few of that’s due to retrofit work performed in 2021.
“We did perform some seismic retrofit work, so did draw down that lake to manage through that work. So with these increased storms that we’ve seen and flows, we’ve been able to put some additional water down in Castaic,” White added.
Officials warn residents that regardless of the rain, water conservation is still essential.
“It’s just really important to remember that we are in a continued drought emergency. We’re kind of dealing with this extreme flood during an extreme drought. And so we’re of course encouraging Californians to continue to conserve water and make conservation a way of life,” stated Ryan Endean, additionally with the state’s Department of Water Resources.
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