GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Impact of California’s Drought Is Widespread dry.

By Dave Ackerman When it comes to California’s ongoing

drought, the question arises – just how bad is it? The short answer: it’s bad, with no end

in sight. Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year im-

posed mandatory water cuts for the first time in the state’s history, requiring all cit- ies and towns to cut their water usage by 25 percent. So what exactly makes this drought so

bad? And, what are people doing about it? There are a few important points to keep in mind. First, California gets most of its water

from the winter rain, which has been be- low-average so far, not nearly what we need to refill the reservoirs.

A Look at the Figures Let’s look at the past year. Note: the

California “water year” runs from Octo- ber to September. The average rainfall is 23 inches. 1924 was the driest year at nine inches and six of the past eight years were

The previous “water year” that ended

October 2014 was 12 inches (the third dri- est in the past 119 years). January and Feb- ruary were especially bad this year. It can get much worse. The 1917-1934

drought ran 17 years with only one year of above-average rainfall (including the re- cord low year of 1924)! Drought

is the norm in California,

but how bad is this one? There are always wet years and dry years; however, the past three years have been among the driest on record, and state officials are concerned that 2015 will be even drier. California’s

reservoirs have about a

year’s worth of water left. Groundwater levels, looked at as a “savings account” that the state can draw from in dry times, are at an all-time low. The U.S. Drought Monitor comes out

with weekly drought maps based on satel- lite imagery, precipitation, and water flow data. The Central Valley, America’s bread basket, is covered in dark red, meaning “exceptional drought.”

Drought Impacts Are Different Around the State Households and non-farm businesses

account for about 20 percent of human water use in California. Major metropoli- tan areas in Southern California and the Bay Area are still relatively well supplied thanks to significant investments in con- servation, supply diversification, and new infrastructure that allows communities to share water during emergencies. But in northern and central parts of the state, communities without diverse water sourc- es have faced sharp cutbacks in water use, and some have received emergency sup- plies from the state. If the drought contin- ues in 2015, many more cities will begin to experience significant shortages. California is not the only state in the

West facing water supply issues. Winter snowpack in Oregon and parts of Wash- ington were also far below normal. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego, has also been in a drought

6 July/August 2015

California Constructor