Despite El Niño Storms, California Reservoirs Half Full
(CBS / AP) — The recent onslaught of El Nino storms only slightly increased the levels of California reservoirs that stand at half of historic depths for this time of year, federal officials said Friday while releasing an initial water outlook for 2016.
Heavy rainfall has soaked into a landscape that has been parched by four years of drought, and the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada has grown but hasn't started to melt off and replenish the critically low reservoirs, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Shane Hunt said.
"It's been raining and snowing," he said. "It's going to take a lot more."
The bureau's outlook comes as federal water managers prepare to announce how much water will be available for Central Valley farmers this summer. The federally operated reservoirs that supply farms and cities throughout California's Central Valley are now 49 percent full, compared with 47 percent on Oct. 1.
Lake Shasta — located in Northern California and the state's largest reservoir — is at 68 percent, but San Luis Reservoir in Central California is at 20 percent of its historical average, the bureau reports.
Federal authorities typically announced in late February how much water will be available to farmers for the warmer growing months beginning in the spring. San Joaquin Valley farmers have said they hope that the wet winter will provide them with at least some surface water supplies, unlike the last two years.
Federal authorities operate the Central Valley Project, part of a system of canals and reservoirs that delivers water from throughout California. The California Department of Water Resources operates is the State Water Project, which delivers water to millions of Southern California residents.
Despite the low reservoir levels, the bureau's regional director, David Murillo, said he welcomed a strong Sierra Nevada snowpack at the start of winter and the parade El Nino storms dousing California following four years of historic drought.
"With this promising news and El Nino storms beginning to materialize, we are feeling encouraged," Murillo said in a statement. "However, storage in our reservoirs remains low, and we must be prudent."
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