Stunning before-and-after images: California reservoir goes from almost empty to 100% full
1 year, 8 months ago

Stunning before-and-after images: California reservoir goes from almost empty to 100% full

LA Times  

Kayakers enjoy time on the San Luis Reservoir in 2016. The reservoir, California’s fifth-largest, is located near Los Banos in Merced County and supplies water to the State Water Project. The photo on the left shows San Luis Reservoir on March 20, 2022, when its water level was well under half of capacity. A year earlier, before meager winter rains, the San Luis Reservoir had dropped to a staggering 10% of capacity in November 2021. The snowpack is so deep that it currently contains roughly 30 million acre-feet of water — or more water than Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, according to a Times analysis of snow sensor data.

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Expansion of San Luis Reservoir set to boost California’s water-storing capacity
1 month, 1 week ago

Expansion of San Luis Reservoir set to boost California’s water-storing capacity

LA Times  

The Biden administration and eight California water agencies have reached an agreement to share in the costs of raising a dam to expand San Luis Reservoir, a nearly $1-billion project intended to increase the state’s water-storage capacity and benefit a group of urban communities and agricultural areas. San Luis Reservoir, which ranks among California’s largest reservoirs, is slated to gain …

Dramatic before-and-after images show how much water California reservoirs have accumulated
11 months, 3 weeks ago

Dramatic before-and-after images show how much water California reservoirs have accumulated

LA Times  

Enterprise Bridge at Lake Oroville in Butte County, Calif. On Dec. 14, the water storage was 2,324,550 acre-feet, 66% of total capacity. After last year’s historically wet winter, many of California’s largest water stores were at or near capacity during the summer months of 2023. The images below from the California Department of Water Resources show Lake Oroville at the …

Column: It’s about time California built the Sites Reservoir
1 year, 1 month ago

Column: It’s about time California built the Sites Reservoir

LA Times  

Cattle graze in the Sites Valley, the location of a proposed reservoir near Maxwell, Calif. California’s state government began drawing up plans for Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley 70 years ago. It’ll also be the first major dam constructed since 1999 when the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California finished Diamond Valley in Riverside County. “California should be permitting …

A wet California boosts water allocations to 100% for first time in nearly 20 years
1 year, 8 months ago

A wet California boosts water allocations to 100% for first time in nearly 20 years

LA Times  

The San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos, a key water supply for millions of Californians from Silicon Valley to San Diego, is nearly at full capacity after a series of storms this winter. “Even in pretty wet years, we haven’t gotten to 100% allocations.” Just last year — when the state faced a third season of punishing drought — officials …

Drone photos show dramatic rise in California reservoirs after record-setting rain, snow
1 year, 9 months ago

Drone photos show dramatic rise in California reservoirs after record-setting rain, snow

LA Times  

Winter storms across California have significantly improved drought conditions and filled state reservoirs that had held less than a third of their capacity. Lake Oroville’s water level rose steadily with each storm passing California this winter. A November 2022 image shows low water conditions surrounding Granite Bay Main Beach at Folsom Lake in Placer County, when the reservoir storage was …

Before and after photos from space show storms’ effect on California reservoirs
1 year, 9 months ago

Before and after photos from space show storms’ effect on California reservoirs

LA Times  

Bidwell Bar Bridge at Lake Oroville on Feb. 8. After a series of atmospheric-river storms hit California in December and January, the state’s two largest reservoirs are looking a lot fuller than they did a few months ago. And data updated Monday from the California Department of Water Resources’ tracker show the reservoir climbing to 60%, still below historical levels …

California reservoirs: The state’s two largest are already at ‘critically low levels’ and the dry season is just starting
2 years, 7 months ago

California reservoirs: The state’s two largest are already at ‘critically low levels’ and the dry season is just starting

CNN  

CNN — Against the backdrop of the water crisis in the Colorado River Basin, where the country’s largest reservoirs are plunging at an alarming rate, California’s two largest reservoirs — Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville — are facing a similar struggle. Shasta Lake is the largest reservoir in the state and the cornerstone of California’s Central Valley Project, a complex …

California regulators warn of dry reservoirs, restrictions
3 years, 2 months ago

California regulators warn of dry reservoirs, restrictions

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s reservoirs are so dry from a historic drought that regulators warned Thursday it’s possible the state’s water agencies won’t get anything from them next year, a frightening possibility that could force mandatory restrictions for residents. “These climate changes are coming fast and furious.” California’s State Water Project — a complex system of dams, canals and reservoirs …

Years later, California voters still wait on water projects
3 years, 3 months ago

Years later, California voters still wait on water projects

Associated Press  

SITES, Calif. — In 2014, in the middle of a severe drought that would test California’s complex water storage system like never before, voters told the state to borrow $7.5 billion and use part of it to build projects to stockpile more water. The largest project by far is a proposed lake in Northern California, which would be the state’s …

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