California water agencies getting allocations increased following weeks-long rain deluge
SACRAMENTO -- Public water agencies in California will be getting more water from the state because of recent heavy rain.
The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) on Thursday said public water agencies will be getting 30% of what they asked for. That's up from the 5% state officials had announced in December.
DWR said the allocation increase coming from the State Water Project (SWP) storage and delivery system is the direct result of the recent winter storms, including nine atmospheric rivers in early January that helped fill reservoirs and dramatically increase the Sierra Nevada snowpack.
The series of powerful storms dumped an estimated 32 trillion gallons of water on California in just three weeks. While the storms caused widespread flooding and damage across the state, the deluge has also helped replenish the state's reservoirs which had been at dangerously low levels.
"These storms made clear the importance of our efforts to modernize our existing water infrastructure for an era of intensified drought and flood," said DWR Director Karla Nemeth in a prepared statement. "Given these dramatic swings, these storm flows are badly needed to refill groundwater basins and support recycled water plants."
The department said the SWP's two largest reservoirs, Oroville and San Luis, have gained a combined 1.62 million acre-feet of water in storage -- roughly enough to provide water to 5.6 million households for a year.
With two months left in the rainy season, state officials warned that dry conditions could return. There are two months left in the state's rainy season. and DWR said allocation decisions may be updated based on the upcoming monthly snowpack surveys and runoff forecasts.
Last week, DWR rolled out a drought resilience task force with local governments, agencies and community members to prepare for the inevitable dry season. The Drought Resilience Interagency and Partners Collaborative (DRIP) was created in part by the 2021 Senate Bill 552, which requires state agencies to take a proactive stance on drought preparedness, especially for smaller rural communities most vulnerable to droughts.