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Educate city folk on water
Capital Press Editorial
March 12, 2009
As every farmer knows, having
enough water involves a whole lot more than
whether it rained today. But what do you say
to city folk in California who watched a bit
of rain last week and asked: "What drought?"
The question, printed in an online column of the San Francisco Chronicle and as a headline to a comprehensive Los Angeles Times report, shows the gulf between water concerns in the Golden State's farm country and what city folk perceive.
For the record, across the state last week, storage reservoirs were at 66 percent of capacity with less than 45 days before shifting weather patterns will all but remove chances of precipitation until November.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, after a dismal winter, has climbed to about 80 percent of average on the strength of a couple of good February storms.
That snowpack number needs to be put into perspective. One year ago in early March, it was 114 percent. Then a record dry spring came along. The snow vanished, much of it straight into dry soil rather than running downstream. Reservoirs were then drawn down to augment streamflow and partially meet 2008 obligations of irrigation districts.
This isn't the worst drought in the memory of Californians. That would be the dry spell that ended with a deluge of precipitation in March 1977. But because holdover reservoir storage was 35 percent of average going into that 1976-77 season, it took more than one wet spring to mark recovery of the water supply.
City folk in our most populous state need to know that while there's been little change in irrigated farmland acreage since that record drought 30 years ago, there's been a dramatic change in another area: California added 10 million people in those three decades. Almost all of them live in cities, which is where farmers everywhere need to do some serious education.
City residents need to learn water conservation all over again - just as they did in that three-year drought which ended in 1977.
The question, printed in an online column of the San Francisco Chronicle and as a headline to a comprehensive Los Angeles Times report, shows the gulf between water concerns in the Golden State's farm country and what city folk perceive.
For the record, across the state last week, storage reservoirs were at 66 percent of capacity with less than 45 days before shifting weather patterns will all but remove chances of precipitation until November.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, after a dismal winter, has climbed to about 80 percent of average on the strength of a couple of good February storms.
That snowpack number needs to be put into perspective. One year ago in early March, it was 114 percent. Then a record dry spring came along. The snow vanished, much of it straight into dry soil rather than running downstream. Reservoirs were then drawn down to augment streamflow and partially meet 2008 obligations of irrigation districts.
This isn't the worst drought in the memory of Californians. That would be the dry spell that ended with a deluge of precipitation in March 1977. But because holdover reservoir storage was 35 percent of average going into that 1976-77 season, it took more than one wet spring to mark recovery of the water supply.
City folk in our most populous state need to know that while there's been little change in irrigated farmland acreage since that record drought 30 years ago, there's been a dramatic change in another area: California added 10 million people in those three decades. Almost all of them live in cities, which is where farmers everywhere need to do some serious education.
City residents need to learn water conservation all over again - just as they did in that three-year drought which ended in 1977.
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