California's reservoirs on a path to 3rd great water year
Water levels at California reservoirs boosted by recent rains
Widespread rains throughout Northern California are filling up the state's reservoirs. KTVU's Tom Vacar looked into the supply to see where we stand.
MARIN COUNTY, California - Widespread rains throughout Northern California are pointing to a third straight, great water year, something we cannot take for granted.
Our emphasis is on the overall supply with attention to the six mega reservoirs that hold an almost unbelievable amount of water.
Water, water, everywhere
By the numbers:
Those six mega reservoirs can hold enough water to fill a fifty square-mile water tank, 530 feet high.
The Marin Municipal Water District's seven reservoirs, usually 75% full on this date, now stand at 100% of their capacity with spillways sending the excess down rivers and streams.
"Certainly welcome rains and it has been years of good solid rain. There's more coming and here we are, first week of January. All of the waterfalls are out. All of the lakes are brimming," said Phoenix Reservoir bike rider Keith Hubert.
Our water luck has not run out. This looks to be a very good year depending on what happens in the next three months.
As of Tuesday, California's six largest mega reservoirs are 75% full, holding 26% of their normal historical levels for this date.
"The big ones you're talking about up north, those are almost three million acres. The total for Marin is 79,000 acres, so they're massively bigger," said Phoenix Reservoir hiker John Murphy.
The backstory:
For the mega reservoirs, that is a sweet spot; enough room to catch much more water for the remaining three months of wet season. If there's too much rain, they can release water to prevent dangerous overflow, as we saw with Lake Oroville back in February 2017. In fact, Oroville is already releasing water right now.
California farmers get about 70% of their water from dams and reservoirs.
"While everything looks great, the management going forward is critical to make sure that farmers have water to grow the food that they do and people in rural and urban communities have the water they need for their domestic purposes," said California Farm Water Coalition Executive Director Mike Wade.
That's why farmers strongly object to state budget cuts to California's Airborne Snow Observatories Program. It uses all manner of high-tech sensors on planes and satellites to precisely measure the exact water content of the Sierra snow pack runoff needed to keep reservoirs well supplied through dry summer and fall.
"It's just inconceivable that the state budget would have that cut at a time we're trying to do our utmost to manage our water supply," said Wade. "California's history, if you look at the rain history, it's episodic. It's all over the place. There's no straight line year in and year out," said Murphy.
That makes high-tech and conservation the key to avoiding the worst of long droughts, a major part of California's weather history.