California Drought (Sacramento, Los Banos, Oroville: real estate, lawyers, purchaser)

[CA4Now]

Interesting commentary on one of the reasons we currently don't save more rainwater than we do.

"By design, much of the water that falls here is swiftly carried out of sight and into the ocean. Instead of roaring through the mouths of numerous canyons, the water is shunted away by neat channels as soon as it encounters suburbia. A couple of centuries ago, the floodwaters would have continued unimpeded into alluvial plains, lush forests and swamps, which helped to store the water and fill underground aquifers.

The engineering to push the water into the sea worked exactly as designed. The 1938 storms that caused the Los Angeles River and other major waterways to overflow their unfortified banks resulted in devastating deaths and destruction. Without the concrete channelization of those rivers, a flood of that magnitude today would kill an even higher number than the roughly 100 people who died then.

And we also need to store that water, now more than ever. Between 30% and 40% of the water we use in L.A. County is pumped from the aquifer underneath us, and we’ll have to rely more heavily on local sources as water deliveries from outside Southern California become less dependable due to climate change."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...oncrete-rivers

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...ement-projects

[Vision67]

Sierra Nevada snowpack hits biggest level in nearly 30 years

Most snow since 1995; hopes increase for an end to California drought, but flood concerns remain

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01...arly-30-years/

"The statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack — the source of nearly one-third of California’s water supply — is at its highest level since 1995, boosting hopes that an end to the drought is near, but also raising concerns that a few warm spring storms could melt it too early and trigger major flooding.

Not since Toy Story packed movie theaters, Steve Young led the 49ers to their fifth Super Bowl win, and gasoline cost $1.28 a gallon has there been so much snow in California’s most famous mountain range at the end of January."

"The snowpack was 208% of its historical average for this time of year on Tuesday, a day ahead of the high-profile Feb. 1 snow survey that state officials planned to take near Highway 50 by Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort with TV cameras in tow. The last time there was as much snow, 28 years ago, on Feb. 1, 1995, it was 207% of normal.

The huge bounty is the third largest statewide since 1950, when consistent statewide records began, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of historical data. Only 1952 (267% of average) and 1969 (230%) had larger amounts on Feb. 1."

[Vision67]

Before and after: Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest reservoir, has risen 182 feet

Key part of state water supply was 22% full 16 months ago, now is 65% full

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/02...isen-180-feet/

"One of the best places to see how dramatically big storms this winter have changed California’s water picture is three hours north of the Bay Area, in the foothills east of Sacramento Valley.

There, Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California and a key component of the state’s water system, has undergone a breathtaking transformation. Sixteen months ago, the reservoir was so parched from severe drought that it was just 22% full. For the first time since it opened in 1967, its power plant had shut down because there wasn’t enough water to spin the turbines and generate electricity.

Now Oroville reservoir is 65% full. Since its lowest point on Sept. 30, 2021, the massive lake’s level has risen 182 feet, boosted by nine atmospheric river storms in January."

"Built in the 1960s by former Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, Jerry Brown’s father, Oroville reservoir holds 3.5 million acre feet when full — enough water for about 18 million people a year. The massive reservoir in Butte County captures water from the Feather River watershed. Its dam is the tallest in the United States. At 770 feet, it towers more than 200 feet higher than the Washington Monument."

[MechAndy]

Nice before and after pics.
Thank you for that.

[18Montclair]

Ugh.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-yor...arce-resource/

[Thekdog]

That'll be a huge improvement over current management by state governments, who have been over using it and not developing alternative resources

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Before and after: Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest reservoir, has risen 182 feet

Key part of state water supply was 22% full 16 months ago, now is 65% full

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/02...isen-180-feet/

"One of the best places to see how dramatically big storms this winter have changed California’s water picture is three hours north of the Bay Area, in the foothills east of Sacramento Valley.

There, Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California and a key component of the state’s water system, has undergone a breathtaking transformation. Sixteen months ago, the reservoir was so parched from severe drought that it was just 22% full. For the first time since it opened in 1967, its power plant had shut down because there wasn’t enough water to spin the turbines and generate electricity.

Now Oroville reservoir is 65% full. Since its lowest point on Sept. 30, 2021, the massive lake’s level has risen 182 feet, boosted by nine atmospheric river storms in January."

"Built in the 1960s by former Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, Jerry Brown’s father, Oroville reservoir holds 3.5 million acre feet when full — enough water for about 18 million people a year. The massive reservoir in Butte County captures water from the Feather River watershed. Its dam is the tallest in the United States. At 770 feet, it towers more than 200 feet higher than the Washington Monument."

This is great news in terms of electricity for California as well. California has installed a lot of solar power and battery energy storage systems, but the pumped storage and generation that Oroville offers is quite a bit and would greatly help with reducing consumption of imported electricity or imported natural gas to generate electricity.

[Arktikos]

Interesting story about the current negotiations over Colorado river allocations.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/we...ng-consumption

Rhett Larson, Arizona State University:

"Well, what we're going through right now is a little bit like a bankruptcy proceeding. It's like the river declaring bankruptcy.

From the very beginning of the way that the states had shared the Colorado River, we had made assumptions about how much the river could pay out in any given year. Those assumptions that were made, now a century ago, were wrong. And we're paying the price for those incorrect assumptions.

Now, those assumptions were wrong both because the data was bad 100 years ago. It's also wrong because the population has obviously changed a lot. And it's wrong because the climate has changed quite a bit. So, even though we're getting around 90 percent of our normal snowpack and precipitation, our winters are so short and they're so hot, that a lot of that water just isn't reaching the river.

So this combination of factors has caused what is something like a bankruptcy proceeding, where you have lots of people who have a claim to a common resource, and the resource just can't pay out to everyone who has a claim to it."

[NJ Brazen_3133]

How they buy rights? Do they just buy up all the riverfront property?

[JGC97]

This may force the southern part of California to finally start building more desalination plants. They're going to need them.