Time for more water storage
By: John Kingsbury, Executive Director
Mountain Counties Water Resources Association
Time for more water storage
As most of California recovers from this historical drought, one thing we can count on is that history will repeat itself. Californians can take full credit for willingly sacrificing landscape and adjusting habits to save water supply for another year. Toilets have been replaced, lawn has been converted to plastic, leaks have been fixed, prime agricultural land has been fallowed, and we have learned to be more efficient with our water supply.
So, fast-forward to the next drought. What’s next? There are powerful environmental activists that support dam removal, oppose new and expanded surface storage, and are demanding permanent and more strenuous conservation restrictions, both on indoor use and outdoor irrigation, as well as more water cutbacks on agriculture. Unfortunately, this environmental movement is a myopic approach that ignores the statewide efforts to improve the California’s integrated water system.
California’s existing integrated and complex water system was built in the 1960s for a different time, hydrology, and population. Climate is and has been warming. By 2050, conservative estimates are that we’ll lose 25 to 40 percent of the Sierra snowpack, the state’s largest winter reservoir. The population has more than doubled since the state and federal water projects were constructed. In 1960, there were 15.87 million people in California. Now there are estimates of around 36 million people and projections of over 60 million people by the year 2050. California’s population is larger than many nations of the world.
Significant to California is the water stored in reservoirs behind dams. These dams, built decades ago, have dedicated in-stream flow releases designed to meet many beneficial uses of the environment, agriculture, and urban and municipal needs. Let’s not forget flood control. As the planet warms, more precipitation will land in the Sierra Nevadas in the form of rain rather than snow. Rain, not absorbed by the forest floor, moves unimpeded through the watershed, breaching dams, causing valley flooding and pressure on the Delta levee system before the water is wasted to the sea. All because California does not have adequate storage facilities to capture excess winter flows.
It has not been since Governor Edmund G. Brown’s vision to build a statewide water system for California and President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech in 1962 at the site of San Luis Reservoir that the people of this state have been united to build a path for the future. “Water is man’s oldest and most precious natural resource,” President Kennedy said. “For many years, some believed that the water problems of this state were too controversial and too complicated to solve. They believed there was no escaping the effects of drought and flood.” And then it was built. San Luis Reservoir, when full, holds up to 2 million acre feet or 652-billion gallons of water and is the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States. Construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1967.
Now, half a century later, most Californians are again united. In 2014, California voters overwhelmingly united to support a water bond as a start to pave the way for the future. The water bond includes $2.7 billion dollars to support the construction of surface water storage and $810 million dollars to improve water security, provide for drought preparedness, and mitigate the effects of climate change.
There are several proposed well-known surface water storage projects being considered; raising Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, constructing Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat, and expanding Los Vaqueros and San Luis Reservoirs. In the Mountain Counties Area, there are also several potential water storage projects with regional and statewide public benefits. These regional projects include, Alder Reservoir, Blagen Mill Pond Restoration Project, Centennial Reservoir, Herring Creek Reservoir Expansion, Sierra Pines Reservoir, Sugar Pine Dam Raise, Tuolumne County Water Supply Reliability Project, Upper Strawberry Reservoir, and Wilson Lake Rehabilitation and Meadow Restoration Plan.
Additional surface water storage reduces ground water extraction and subsidence in the Delta by using surface water during wet years and the ground water basin during dry years. Additional storage provides for new urban and municipal uses, drought preparedness, flood protection, and recreational opportunities. Surface water stored behind dams provides cold water for endangered fish, such as steelhead trout and salmon. Water released from reservoirs helps balance the wind and solar electricity grid by generating carbon-free renewable hydropower energy. As the population grows, so must California water for food production, unless we are content with our children and grandchildren subsisting on two meals a day or food from third world countries.
It is time for more water storage to help pave the way to a prosperous future for California. Unless we have the fortitude to increase surface water storage as the voters have called for, we will continue to ration the half-full glass of water. We should reflect on the vision of Governor Brown and the words of President Kennedy: “Progress represents the combined will of the American people, and only when they are joined together for action, instead of standing still and thinking that everything that had to be done has been done. It’s only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead and that we prepare the way for those who come after us.”
This opinion was modified and presented in a letter to Water Commission Chair, Joseph Byrne, and the Commissioners, to remind the Commission of water storage projects in the mountain counties area that have regional and statewide benefit.
Letter to:Chair Joe Bryne August 2016
