Clik here to view.
State water managers have issued the year’s first estimate of water deliveries at just five percent of the amount requested by California water systems.
Officials with the Department of Water Resources, which runs the State Water Project, said Monday the meager volume of deliveries could increase if the winter is characterized by healthy rain and snowfall totals.
The State Water Project delivers water to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.
“Based on long-range forecasts and the possibility of a La Niña year, the State Water Project is planning for a dry 2025 punctuated by extreme storms like we’ve seen in late November,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “We need to prepare for any scenario, and this early in the season we need to take a conservative approach to managing our water supply. Our wettest months of the season are still to come.”
Monday’s delivery estimate doesn’t include water from the series of impressive storms that dropped above-average levels of precipitation across Northern California in the last two weeks of November. Those numbers will be included in future monthly forecasts, according to DWR officials.
While the five percent estimate is low, DWR officials compared it to last year’s first estimate, which was just 10 percent of requested supplies and which eventually increased to 40 percent by the end of the season.
Currently, all but one of the state’s main reservoirs are showing levels at or above historic averages, according to the latest data from DWR.
The post With wetter weather likely ahead, DWR gives conservative forecast for water deliveries appeared first on Local News Matters.
