California continues to face a major water crisis with little end in sight even as the Sierras are forecasted to receive rain this week. Over the past two years, the state has only received 70 percent of its normal annual rainfall. It would take an incredibly wet season to restore state reservoir and aquifers levels to normal: a season that would have to make up for the 60 percent of rainfall lost in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, on top of a full 2008-2009 rainfall season, or 160 percent more water! So far, the rainy season, which began in the fall, has been misty. 

 

A lack of rainfall affects the state's available water for businesses, residences,  agriculture, and environmental purposes. Last year's water restrictions cut an additional 30 percent of available water in order to protect spawning Delta smelt and other sensitive wildlife. With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's recent biological opinion, which gives operation details to water suppliers on how much water can be pumped out of the Delta, those 30 percent restrictions will again be enforced on top of two years of drought periods. Impeding climate change conditions and population demands will only increase this crisis. 

 

What can California do to get and make-up for a failing water supply system?

 

There are several possibilities including conservation, reuse and recycling, pumping water in from outside areas, lifting environmental restrictions on pumping (not a great option), and adding more storage supplies.  

 

Water agencies around the state are saying that further conservation measures will not work, that customers are conserving as much as possible. Some agencies and cities are doing a better job than others as they apply strict water limits per household as well as to build green to reduce  the amount of water needed.

 

Some customers are doing well by installing water efficient features in their homes. The challenge with further conservation springs from trying to enforce water use limits, some customers will just agree to pay more for their share of water supplies. 

 

Water reuse and recycling offers much more hope for the state. “34 million acre-feet” of water is used by California's agriculture industry each year (California Department of Water Resources). A total of “43 million acre-feet” of water is pumped out of the Delta in California each year and sent to various water users and nearly 80 percent of that fresh water goes to crops (California Department of Water Resources). In implementing a reuse program that both conserves water (many farms are still not using water efficient drip irrigation systems, and one of the goals for the 2009 state water plan is to increase the use of drip irrigation) and reuses even 40 percent of the state's water resources will spare millions of acre-feet of water for drinking supplies and make the state more drought tolerant. 

 

Another smart solution is to increase the storage capacities of above ground and aquifer storage systems so that when pumping restrictions are lifted in the non-spawning seasons, or more water is available during heavy rain seasons, more water can be pumped (safely) from the Delta and stored for later use by customers.

 

Another consideration is the highly controversial peripheral canal, which voters in 1982 rejected as a water supply option. The project would consist of a canal routed around the Delta, in effect, avoiding pumping from some of the more sensitive rivers and tributaries of the Delta and would also capture seasonal floodwaters using that excess supply (that typically runs to San Francisco Bay without intercepting pumps) for a “new” state water supply for customers. A major problem with this option is that the project may require building new dams in sensitive ecosystems and sensitive rivers and tributaries. 

 

Even though the proposed project was shot down by voters, a new version of the canal has sprung to life in the eyes of politicians, but the same ecosystem endangerment conditions still exist. Politicians are hoping that the need for water and the benefit of creating jobs needed to build the canal will overpower the ecosystem challenges.

 

Maybe that might have been possible 15 or even 10 years ago, but today, voters are more concerned about the environment: water, habitat, climate change contributions and air pollution. Someone better come up with a better plan because continued Delta destruction is NEITHER a quick fix for the state economy, nor long term solution for the water supply. Time to get back to the basics -- reduce, reuse and reservoir aggressively.

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