California snowpack at 55% of normal, survey shows

[MindMover]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The water content of California's mountain snowpack is at a disappointing 55 percent of normal, according to the snow survey conducted Monday morning.

April's survey of the snowpack is considered the most important of the year, said Mark Cowin, director of the state's Department of Water Resources. The snowpack is normally at its peak in early April, just before it begins to melt and feed the state's streams, reservoirs and aquifers.

"An unusually wet March improved conditions, but did not make up for the previous dry months," Cowin said in a statement. "The take-home message is that we've had a dry winter and although good reservoir storage will lessen impacts this summer, we need to be prepared for a potentially dry 2013."

The crucial reading means the state will probably deliver just half of the 4 million acre-feet of water requested by members of the state water project this year, after an unusually wet 2011 helped fill up the state's reservoir storage. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons of water - enough water to supply one to two households for a year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/03/BAPH1NTMOA.DTL&feed=rss.news

---

Who builds those sea water converters and how fast can we get them to the West......

[Politicalboi]

1. If water were oil

We would pipe to the states that have floods, too much snow, and gather their overflow. How about a nationwide water pipeline.

[CreekDog]

14. what about the mountains and energy required to transport water?

it uses a ton of energy to pipe water over the Tehachapis to LA (4000 feet).

how much would it cost to get water over the Rockies and then the Sierra Nevada?

massive use of energy and money.

[XemaSab]

17. I think that's a bogus plan

Before we talk about more projects to ship water around, we should first talk about conservation.

[Nihil]

22. Traitor! Communist! Socialist!

Haven't you learned that unstoppable accelerating infinite growth is the ONLY way to live?

You must be one of those dang enviro-thingy people who are causing so much trouble
around the place with their "theories" and what-have-you ... making jokes about how
similar the words "conservative" and "conservation" are when everyone knows they are
*completely* different. ...

[Bill USA]

2. Jesus!

recommended!

[Starcruiser]

3. Jesus would of sold his state's water to the others and made a fortune

Socialist bastards, all of ya!

[FirstLight]

4. glad I am at the source

so there's plenty for us to use in emergency...but that's not good for state agriculture, not to mention fire season...

though it is hard to grasp how we could be so far under the normal percentage, since last y]ear was such a bumper crop, i think over 150%, maybe 200%...?
Does that mean the extra water from last year was just wasted? I though reservoirs were supposed to STORE water?

[KamaAina]

12. They do

which is why we're not looking at water restrictions any time soon.

Of course, Santa Clara County's were only at 75% of capacity even then, because the dams need seismic retrofits.

[Earth_First]

5. Ahh yes...

While I sympathize (to an extent...) California must not go on without these:

[wordpix]

7. looks like lots of fertilizer there + impounded water

Make the desert bloom and dry up the Colo. River.

[msongs]

6. so on average this year and last were about typical. nt

[CreekDog]

15. did you make that number up? where are you getting that?

[lordsummerisle]

8. Related story

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/31/the_impending_urban_water_crisis/singleton/

[NickB79]

9. Desalination plants require gobs of energy

And, since the decline of snowfall has been predicted by theories of global warming, burning coal or natural gas to generate that energy will only make things worse, requiring even more desalination, and so on and so forth.

Welcome to civilization's death spiral.

[NHDemProg]

10. Now there's a real reason

for the farmers not to gripe about not having enough water.

[KamaAina]

11. That's up from 30 percent before a yucky, miserable March

we'll live. Reservoirs were practically overflowing from last year, so no water apocalypse just yet.

[CreekDog]

13. sea water converters won't get water to our reservoirs (which are mostly in the mountains)

not only does desalination cost a ton of money and energy, the amount required to transport the water, uphill would be astronomical.

and most of the water is for agricultural, not residential use.

[XemaSab]

18. The only place where I can think of that desal makes sense is San Francisco

and that would be less for conservation than for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy.

There are also schemes floating around to use wind energy to move water around and then use the water as a "battery" for later release of the energy, but these schemes involve having water in the first place.

[CreekDog]

19. I'd heard San Diego had the most developed plans for desalination

and since so much of their water comes from the Colorado, might have the most advantage there.

the info on SF is interesting, although SF's water system doesn't just serve 800,000 people of SF, but a couple million from near San Jose to SF.

[lunatica]

16. After a few years of drought California moves into

conservation mode very quickly. The State just asks its citizens to conserve water and we all know what to do. Restaurants won't serve drinking water unless it is requested, people put bricks in their toilet tanks, showers are shortened, toilets are not flushed every time if there's only pee in them, lawns don't get watered as much (then if the drought goes on longer lawns are no longer watered), people stop letting water run in the sinks while they wash dishes or brush their teeth, etc.

Californians have withstood droughts that last for years sometimes. But we haven't had one of those in a few decades. I'm sure we have more people now which means more water is used.

[NickB79]

20. According to some climate models, the Southwest better prepare for droughts lasting decades

The Southwest is projected to get drier as the century progresses, all the while having to cope with rising demand from a growing population and falling water reserves in largely non-renewable underground aquifers (often called "fossil water&quot .

[FarCenter]

21. 325,851 gallons of water - enough water to supply one to two households

A household should use about 3000 gallons per month, or 36,000 gallons per year.