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 California has just completed what may turn out to be the driest
year on record in many areas, leaving water reservoirs with a
fraction of their normal reserves and slowing the normally full
American River so dramatically that brush and dry riverbed are
showing through in areas normally teeming with fish.
The Folsom Reservoir near Sacramento is so low that the remains of a
Gold Rush-era ghost town — flooded to create the lake in the 1950s — are visible for the first time in years.
January and February are the wettest months in much of the state,
and so far 2014 has been mostly dry, with little precipitation
expected, according to the National Weather Service.
Brown is expected to make the declaration Friday morning at a
hastily called news conference in San Francisco. Declaring a drought
emergency will allow him to call for conservation measures, and also
provide flexibility in deciding the state's water priorities.
A spokesman for the governor would not provide details, but a
well-placed political source told Reuters that Brown would be
declaring a drought emergency, and several California news agencies,
including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee, have
also said that they expect him to make the declaration on Friday.
Brown has repeatedly hinted that he was edging closer to an
emergency declaration in recent days, as lawmakers including
Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein urged him take the step.
The state's mountains, where runoff from melting snow provides much
water for California's thirsty cities and farms, have just 20
percent of the snow that they normally have at this time of year,
officials said.
HALF-EMPTY RESERVOIRS
Some reservoirs are at their lowest levels in years. As of
Wednesday, Folsom Reservoir had just half the water it normally has
this time of year, according to state records, prompting cities that
rely on it — including Sacramento — to implement rationing.
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Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir in the state, is also down from
its historical average by nearly half, holding just 36 percent of
the water it is built to contain. Normally at this time of year, the
reservoir holds 55 percent of its capacity, the state said.
Other sources of water, including the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta, are also affected, prompting cities to dip into reserves and
forcing farmers to scramble. Some public agencies may be able to
purchase just 5 percent of the water that they contracted to buy
from the state.
Water has long been a contentious issue in California, where it has
been diverted from mountain lakes and streams to irrigate farms and
slake the thirst of metropolitan areas.
Many of the state's efforts to deal with the problem are
controversial, including a $25 billion plan to divert water from
above the delta by sending it through a pair of gigantic tunnels.
For many in the state's $44.7 billion agriculture business, water
scarcity is a problem made worse by a recent switch to orchard-style
crops such as almonds and olives. Unlike vegetables or cotton, which
grow in fields that can be left fallow in dry years, the trees need
water every year.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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