Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US Supreme Court Lifts Order That Blocked Trump’s Mass Federal Layoffs

1 hour ago

Trump to Attend Club World Cup Final, FIFA Opens Office in Trump Tower

1 hour ago

Trump Says Pharmaceutical Tariffs Could Reach 200%

2 hours ago

Rescue Teams Find Three More Bodies After Central Texas Floods

2 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rigoberto Simental Aguilar

2 hours ago

Trump Says He Is Not Happy With Russia’s Putin, Considering Sanctions

2 hours ago

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to Be Sentenced on October 3

2 hours ago

Israeli Military Says It Struck Key Hamas Figure in Lebanon’s Tripoli

3 hours ago

Madera County Sheriff Logs 29 Fire-Related Calls on Fourth of July, Most in 5 Years

3 hours ago

Trump Says He May Take Over Governance of Washington, DC

3 hours ago
With No March Miracle, California Prepares for Another Drought
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
April 3, 2021

Share

LOS ANGELES — California’s hopes for a wet “March miracle” did not materialize and a dousing of April showers may as well be a mirage at this point.

The state appears in the midst of another drought only a few years after a punishing 5-year dry spell dried up rural wells, killed endangered salmon, idled farm fields, and helped fuel the most deadly and destructive wildfires in modern state history.

“Guys are in a really tough spot when they don’t know what water’s going to be available until the planting season, which is now.” — Danny Merkley of the California Farm Bureau Federation

“We’re looking at the second dry year in a row. In California that pretty much means we have a drought,” said Jay Lund, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of California, Davis.

In fact, the entire West is gripped in what scientists consider a “megadrought” that started in 1999 and has been interrupted by only occasional years with above-average precipitation. In California, the heaviest rain and snow comes in the winter months, but not this year — about 90% of the state already is experiencing drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Much of California’s water comes from mountain snow in the Sierra Nevada that melts during the spring and summer and feeds rivers and streams that in turn fill reservoirs. The Sierra snowpack traditionally holds its peak water content on April 1 and the state will take a survey Thursday to determine the level. Last month, a survey showed just 60% of the average.

Fewer Water Restrictions This Time?

Four years ago, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared an end to a statewide drought emergency, he said conservation should continue, warning “the next drought could be around the corner.”

Its arrival will mean different things depending on where people live.

The 2012-2016 drought required some sacrifice from everyone as Brown ordered a 25% reduction in water use. Residents took shorter showers, flushed less frequently, and let their cars get dirty. Many homeowners replaced their lawns with artificial grass or desert succulents.

Such restrictions are less likely this time around because municipal supplies are in better shape and water use has not returned to previous levels, said Caitrin Chappelle of the Public Policy Institute of California. The Metropolitan Water District, which sells water to public agencies serving about half the state’s 40 million residents, has a record high water supply.

But efforts to restore depleted groundwater aquifers or keep river flows high and water temperatures low enough for the winter-run Chinook salmon that almost went extinct on the Sacramento River during the drought, are not as far along.

“The time in between the end of the last drought and, possibly, the beginning of this next one isn’t that long,” Chappelle said. ”They have started doing a better job of planning for it, it’s just whether or not they’ve had enough time to prepare before the emergency hits again.”

The Sierra snowpack provides about 30% of California’s water and the Department of Water Resources measurement is key to forecasting how much can be allocated to farms and municipalities under a complex system of water rights laws that spell out what each user is entitled to. The department already warned 40,000 water rights holders they will probably only get 5% of the amount they requested.

In this Oct. 30, 2014, photo, houseboats float in the drought-lowered waters of Oroville Lake near Oroville. California’s hopes for a wet “March miracle” did not materialize and a dousing of April 2021 showers may as well be a mirage at this point. The state appears in the midst of another drought only a few years after a punishing 5-year dry spell dried up rural wells, killed endangered salmon, idled farm, fields and helped fuel the most deadly and destructive wildfires in modern state history. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Unknowns Are Big Burden for Farmers

“Guys are in a really tough spot when they don’t know what water’s going to be available until the planting season, which is now,” said Danny Merkley of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

With less water to draw from rivers and the state’s intricate network of canals and aqueducts, farmers fallowed hundreds of thousands of additional acres.

Growers will likely do the same thing again, idling low-value row crops such as tomatoes, lettuce or onions, to commit their precious groundwater to high-value permanent crops like almonds, pistachios, and wine grapes, Merkley said.

Tapping those wells could have ramifications for their neighbors. During the last drought, agribusiness was blamed for over-pumping groundwater, causing the land to sink and wells in some poor rural communities to go dry.

Lawmakers for the first time decided to regulate groundwater and require plans in the next two decades to stop over-pumping from aquifers. But groundwater levels have not fully recovered from the last drought with another looming.

The state Department of Water Resources already warned 40,000 water rights holders they will probably only get 5% of the amount they requested.

Rural Fresno Community Lost Its Wells Last Time

In Tombstone Territory, an unincorporated area surrounded by orchards outside Fresno, three-quarters of the 50 homes lost their well water during the last drought, said Amanda Monaco of the Leadership Counsel For Justice & Accountability. Many residents are farmworkers who can’t afford the $20,000 required to dig a deeper well.

“If we’re headed back into a drought that means potential devastation for communities that we work with,” Monaco said. “They’re terrified that kind of thing could happen again.”

Ray Cano was one of the first Tombstone residents to lose his well water in 2015.

“It started spitting air and then nothing came out of it,” Cano said.

His next-door neighbor ran a hose over while Cano had his pump replaced and lowered deeper in the well. Cano returned the favor later that year when the neighbor’s well dried up.

Even now that their wells are working, the water quality is so poor that residents are provided 50 gallons of drinking water a month under a grant.

Another Dangerous Fire Season Anticipated

With less snow and temperatures warming due to climate change, another bad fire season is likely on the way, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The state largely escaped fire devastation during the previous drought, but has suffered terribly since, after 100 million trees died and vegetation remained dry as a result of the drought. Since 2015, the state has experienced the largest, most destructive, and deadliest wildfires in recorded state history;

Lund found that the drought caused about $10 billion in damages statewide, without direct loss of life. But the wildfires after caused a record of over $55 billion in direct property losses and 175 direct deaths, with possibly many other deaths and economic impacts due to weeks of widespread air pollution from smoke.

“The interesting thing about these other drought impacts is they happened after the drought ended,” Lund said. ”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Netanyahu Nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

DON'T MISS

Netanyahu Meets Trump at White House as Israel, Hamas Discuss Ceasefire

DON'T MISS

Trump Executive Order Seeks End to Wind and Solar Energy Subsidies

DON'T MISS

US Threatens California With Legal Action Over Transgender Sports Law

DON'T MISS

US Veterans Affairs Will Cut Nearly 30,000 Jobs, Far Fewer Than Planned

DON'T MISS

Houston Astros Donate $1M to Help Recovery From Texas Floods

DON'T MISS

Tucker Carlson Aired Interview With President of Iran

DON'T MISS

California Fails to Stop 23andMe Founder From Re-Acquiring Company

DON'T MISS

Madera County Multi-Agency Effort Leads to Arrest of Felony Suspect in Atwater

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest DUI Driver During Crackdown on Illegal Street Racing and Sideshows

UP NEXT

US Veterans Affairs Will Cut Nearly 30,000 Jobs, Far Fewer Than Planned

UP NEXT

California Fails to Stop 23andMe Founder From Re-Acquiring Company

UP NEXT

US Proposes Rules That Could Boost Oil, Gas Output in US West

UP NEXT

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Injures 1 Firefighter, Burns Over 80,000 Acres

UP NEXT

Texas Girls’ Camp Mourning Dozens Dead in Floods as Search Teams Face More Rain

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

Trump Says Pharmaceutical Tariffs Could Reach 200%

2 hours ago

Rescue Teams Find Three More Bodies After Central Texas Floods

2 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rigoberto Simental Aguilar

2 hours ago

Trump Says He Is Not Happy With Russia’s Putin, Considering Sanctions

2 hours ago

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to Be Sentenced on October 3

2 hours ago

Israeli Military Says It Struck Key Hamas Figure in Lebanon’s Tripoli

3 hours ago

Madera County Sheriff Logs 29 Fire-Related Calls on Fourth of July, Most in 5 Years

3 hours ago

Trump Says He May Take Over Governance of Washington, DC

3 hours ago

Judge Orders CVS’ Omnicare Unit to Pay $949 Million Over Invalid Prescriptions

3 hours ago

Trump Says He Will Impose 50% Tariff on Copper Imports on Tuesday

3 hours ago

US Justice Department Scrambles to Defend Its About-Face on Release of Epstein Files

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s Justice Department scrambled on Tuesday to answer questions after its leadership concluded...

15 minutes ago

U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
15 minutes ago

US Justice Department Scrambles to Defend Its About-Face on Release of Epstein Files

A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2024. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

US Supreme Court Lifts Order That Blocked Trump’s Mass Federal Layoffs

President Donald Trump holds the key to the FIFA Club World Cup trophy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Trump to Attend Club World Cup Final, FIFA Opens Office in Trump Tower

Vials are seen in this undated handout photo. Pfizer/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
2 hours ago

Trump Says Pharmaceutical Tariffs Could Reach 200%

A drone view shows the Guadalupe River and damage from flooding near Camp Mystic, in Hunt, Texas, U.S. July 6, 2025. (Reuters/Evan Garcia)
2 hours ago

Rescue Teams Find Three More Bodies After Central Texas Floods

Rigoberto Simental Aguilar is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for July 8, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
2 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rigoberto Simental Aguilar

FILE PHOTO: Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are seen during the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/File Photo
2 hours ago

Trump Says He Is Not Happy With Russia’s Putin, Considering Sanctions

Lawyer Teny Geragos speaks to the media next to lawyers Marc Agnifilo outside the U.S. federal court, following a bail hearing, after the jury reached verdicts in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., July 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to Be Sentenced on October 3

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend