Posted on 02/14/2017 1:51:49 PM PST by nickcarraway
As s large amounts of rain and snow soaked California last week, all eyes turned toward the threat of a dam failure at Lake Oroville, a reservoir that supplies much of the state’s drinking water. But what’s getting less attention is the fact that despite the easing of drought conditions in California, the situation below ground is still dry.
Thus far, approximately 188,000 people who live near Lake Oroville remain under evacuation orders put in place when the lake’s water levels began to rise, reports the Sacramento Bee. The earthen dam, which holds 3.5 million acre-feet of water, is the tallest in the United States. But when heavy storms hit the Sierra Nevadas, the reservoir filled to its highest level ever. Such excess forced officials to use an emergency spillway that has started to erode, creating the possibility of a collapse.
The Sierra Nevadas aren’t the only place in California hit with ample precipitation this winter. Earlier this year, a series of severe storms struck Southern California, driven by a temperature anomaly in the Pacific Ocean that shifted the jet stream from its usual position. Although that’s good news for the drought-parched state, it doesn’t mean that the drought is over.
Drought conditions continue to prevail throughout much of the state. According to the United States Drought Monitor, which tracks drought conditions throughout the country, a large portion of central and southern California is still in the midst of a drought. Though much of the state’s dry segment is at a “moderate” drought level, pockets of “severe” and “extreme” drought remain despite extensive snowfall that has put statewide snowpack at 176 percent of normal.
The water below the surface, known as groundwater, also remains in crisis. According to Thomas Harter, a groundwater expert and Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair for Water Resources Management and Policy at the University of California, Davis, this deep water offers a kind of liquid insurance for the state.
“Our groundwater is an endowment of nature,” Harter tells Smithsonian.com. Since the 1920s, water has been pumped up from beneath the surface to supplement snowpack and surface reservoirs. But during dry years, more water is pumped out of the ground than is put back in by precipitation—and the recent drought has overdrawn the groundwater account. “We have a large deficit,” explains Harter. “It will take up to six average to wet years to make up for the losses we’ve incurred over the last 15 years of groundwater storage.”
Even if it rained constantly this year, says Harter, it wouldn’t make up for the loss, especially since groundwater takes longer to accumulate underground than it does to build up in above-ground reservoirs like Lake Oroville.
In the meantime, some areas of the Central Valley are experiencing a phenomenon known as subsidence, in which rock settles in on itself and becomes more compact due to excessive groundwater pumping. Last year, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory found that some parts of central and southern California have sunk as much as 6.5 inches from subsidence.
California is working on preventing such overpumping; in 2014, the state enacted a law that regulates the practice. But it will take plenty of precipitation to bring aquifers to the right levels—and ongoing depletion can contribute to decreases in water quality, habitat loss and even a higher risk of earthquakes.
It all goes to show that the drought above is only part of the story—and California’s water crisis is far from over.
There you go.
The Gospel according to the Smithsonian has spoken.
Don’t you dare question the Smithsonian.
/s
Their magazine sucks also.
Yes those too.
ROTFL! I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot came out and proclaimed this. Funny stuff.
You might try reading your dictionary. Start, maybe, with the word “satire”.
“I do not understand this groundwater/aquifer issue. Doesn’t the heavy rain and snow melt replenish these? Give me some knowledge Freepers please”
It does, but slowly.
True,the Israeli’s have a process to do desaltization cheaply.
They will say we are in a drought if it rains 40 days and 40 nights. Never changes. It’s never enough, they are never happy. Let’s ask why.... Would it be because they want to charge high prices for water AS IF we were in a drought? The snowpack in the Sierras is almost double what it usually is, but NO, not even that is enough.
(don’t get me started about the commies in Sacramento).
I’m with DoughtyOne.
Thanks bboop.
Northern California, including Oroville, is no longer in a drought.
But the drought may have been a factor in the spillway issue, since dry soil erodes a lot easier and it likely eroded during either the recent rains or from wind earlier.
Which decade? I don’t disagree with you, but the demonrats and enviro nazis think it’s better to build a bullet train to nowhere.
There is a drought of good judgment and of sanity there. LIBs are lunatics.
Name me one state that is, was Texas independent when it wanted to leave the union but still wanted federal dollars, or any of the half dozen other states that pushed secession?
3 weeks ago 42% of the state (mostly normal was declared “drought over.” SoCal got a large storm since and the state is withholding judgement until May when the snow runoff is more defined.
mostly nor cal
If they built aqueduct instead of railways to nowhere, they could have been pumping water from where there is too much, to where it’s needed.
But that would make too much sense.
A large portion of central and southern California is DESERT! See Death Valley and the Mojave Desert.
And why are scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory studying this instead of, oh, jet propulsion and the like?
What a surprise. More horse shit from America’s Left. A drought is still a drought except when you have record rain/snowfall.
They’ll just continue to change the conditions so its always in perpeptual drought.
Trump should tell their request to FOAD.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.