The California drought continues, and some experts believe the state may have as little as one year of water left.
Snowpacks and groundwater levels are at all-time lows, as the state fails to recover from a harsh summer in 2014. The total amount of water in the San Joaquin and Sacramento water basins is currently 34 million acre-feet below normal, roughly 50 percent more than the amount present in the nation's largest reservoir, Lake Mead. Since 2011, the amount of water available in California has dropped by more than 12 million acre-feet each year. This has also resulted in land in some areas of the state dropping by as much as a foot.
An acre-foot of water is nearly 326,000 gallons, which the Metropolitian Water District of Southern California says is about the amount used by two typical households in a year. Metropolitian is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies that serves about 19 million people in six counties.
Pumping of groundwater for agriculture in California's Central Valley is responsible for about two-thirds of the loss seen in the state, NASA officials estimate. As the drought continues, farmers are pumping even more water out of the ground, compounding the problem. As this practice continues, wells are running dry, leading to the loss of crops, harming the livelihood of farmers, and raising food prices for consumers.
Groundwater depletion has been taking place in California since the start of the 20th century, and total water storage in the state has been on the decline since 2002. The state does not have any plan in place to deal with the effects of such a massive, continued drought, especially for megadrought conditions. Winter is normally the wet season in America's most populous state, but January 2015 was the driest start to the year recorded since the start of record-keeping in 1895.
The Metropolitan Water District is considering mandatory water rationing by summer if the drought does not begin to ease over the next few months. That body has recently come to agreements with organizations to raise awareness of the problem, and to bring water to Central California from the Sacramento Valley.
"A successful education and advertising campaign will further motivate Southland consumers and businesses to conserve even more water and eliminate wasteful practices. The water transfers will augment regional supplies to meet demands this year," said Randy Record, a board member of the Metropolitan Water District.
According to a Field poll released in February, around 34 percent of Californians support a mandatory water rationing program to combat the drought. Such a ruling would affect private homes, businesses, and commercial farms.
"Our state's water management is complex, but the technology and expertise exist to handle this harrowing future. It will require major changes in policy and infrastructure that could take decades to identify and act upon. Today, not tomorrow, is the time to begin," said Jay Famiglietti from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also a professor at University of California at Irvine.
Photo: Robert Couse-Baker | Flickr
