Storms end Southern California water restrictions for 7M

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s 11th atmospheric river left the storm-soaked state with a bang Wednesday, bringing flooded roadways, landslides and toppled trees to the southern part of the state as well as drought-busting rainfall that meant the end of water restrictions for nearly 7 million people.

Even as residents struggled to clean up before the next round of winter arrives in the coming days — with some 27,000 people still under evacuation orders statewide Wednesday — the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s decision brought relief amid the state’s historic drought.

The district supplies water for 19 million people in six counties. The board imposed the restrictions, which included limiting outdoor watering to one day a week, in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties last year during a severe shortage of state water supplies. But weather woes remained Wednesday, as an additional 61,000 people remained under evacuation warnings and emergency shelters housed more than 650 people, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Meanwhile in Arizona, the city of Sedona urged people in a dozen areas to immediately evacuate Wednesday evening because of predicted flooding of Oak Creek. The churning waters had submerged a roadway near a mobile home park and forecasters said it could rise to 15 feet (4.6 meters), a foot above flood stage.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/california-atmospheric-river-storms-flood-46fa8cef28187d092274ec9b84f0df8f

[oldsoftie]

1. CA needs to build more reservoirs. When super rain events happen they needs storage.

Too much of this heavy rain will go to the ocean. Its a shame all these storms aren't going to help Mead & Powell very much.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. "Its a shame all these storms aren't going to help Mead & Powell"

The amount of snow that has come so far and that might continue to fall over the next month or so if the pattern doesn't suddenly shut off, would eventually help Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the future with snowmelt that makes its way into the rivers/tributaries that feed them. If some kind of restrictions remain, the area could recover faster to go with that extra snow melt moisture.

AP
Scientists: Largest US reservoirs moving in right direction


SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Thu, March 16, 2023 at 2:00 AM EDT·4 min read

(sniip)

Groundwater and reservoir storage levels — which take much longer to bounce back — remain at historic lows. It could be more than a year before the extra moisture has an effect on the shoreline at Lake Mead that straddles Arizona and Nevada. And it's unlikely that water managers will have enough wiggle room to wind back the clock on proposals for limiting water use.

That's because water release and retention operations for the massive reservoir and its upstream sibling — Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border — already are set for the year. The reservoirs are used to manage Colorado River water deliveries to 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico.

Still, Lake Powell could gain 45 feet (14 meters) as snow melts and makes its way into tributaries and rivers over the next three months. How much it rises will depend on soil moisture levels, future precipitation, temperatures and evaporation losses.

“We’re definitely going in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go,” said Paul Miller, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

(snip)

https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-largest-us-reservoirs-moving-060041921.html

[Alexander Of Assyria]

6. Wow! Mother Nature Provides! God Blesses California, m sure saying in Texas churches!

[Omnipresent]

4. That sucking sound we all hear, isn't the consumer using up the water...

It’s the pinheads in charge of overseeing Californian’s need, for a consistent water supply.

[The Jungle 1]

2. If people want to live in the west farming must stop.

Farming uses over 90% of the water in many states.
We can grow lettuce in the east. 3 gallons of water per almond!
This time of year I have water popping to the surface from my aquifer.

[LittleGirl]

5. California is the bread basket of America

we can't end farming there but we could stop Nestle from bottling water for nearly free access, first.
We could also end Saudi Arabia's farms in AZ that get free water for their alphafa (spelling) crops that get shipped over there first.
There is a lot of water that customers in these states are paying excess for because the corporations made deals with the states that were never voted on and are paying through the nose for their own access.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

7. California farming should be a national priority, it's the bread, veggie, and fruit basketof nation.

Very honourable mention to all of the Prairies.

[The Jungle 1]

8. I agree California and the west do grow a lot of our food.

Which is why we need to react now. We can end farming in the west. Climate change will probably end it for us. In many areas the aquifers are being pumped dry. This is unsustainable.
Lettuce is 95% water. Then we put it on trucks and ship the ball of water to the east coast. 3 gallons per almond? State wide a $5.23 billion dollar crop and it is the third biggest crop in the state. 7,600 California farms produce 82% of the world's almonds. That is just not going to work as our climate changes.

[LittleGirl]

10. I actually agree

But let’s start with the corporations that are not paying their fare share too.

[The Jungle 1]

13. I always scream about corporate welfare but it never gets any traction

So we agree on that also

[NickB79]

17. The Midwest is the American breadbasket. California supplies vegetables, not grains

Sorry to nitpick, but you don't make bread from almonds and lettuce.

[LittleGirl]

20. Yeah, well, I know that.

I grew up in the midwest where all of the good corn comes from. But Ukraine is also considered the bread basket of Europe so I just kinda used that term of endearment for California. I think Americans would starve if they cut off farming in CA.

[newdayneeded]

9. we have huge plots of WI farmland

sitting idle, the summer growing should be done in the "wet" states, and the "dry" states should be used during the winter only, when we are buried in snow.

[cstanleytech]

11. They should keep some of the restrictions as they cannot depend on a rare event like this

to bail them out in the future.

[intrepidity]

16. Well, but the 3-year-long La Nina just ended

So, it probably means we're headed into a wet El Niño. More ways to capture this rainfall is what we really need.

[cstanleytech]

18. Need to be careful about how much to capture though as if you dry out the soil due to capturing

to much it can actually cause flooding to be worse.

[DENVERPOPS]

12. Oh goodie.

The Colorado river water that usually is used in California, will now not be needed, and can be commandeered by Lake Mead, and Las Vegas won't go black out and have to shut off their lighting, air conditioners and massive evaporative water fountains..........and Phoenix developers, along with Las Vegas developers will be able to march on as normal, continuing to build in a frikking desert...........

All the homes in those areas/cities will continue to be allowed to have their green lawns, swimming pools in every back yard, and umpteen Zillion green golf courses......Did you see LasVegas made a big deal that they were "limiting the size of backyard pools"? The size they settled on, was bigger than the typical ones in their residential back yards now........

And heaven forbid that those desert cities communities should cut back on their continuing massive growth and huge housing subdivisions which require even more water.......

I am thinking we here in Colorado need to construct a humongous reservoir on our side of the Utah Border.........
Last year Arizona? in the fall, asked Colorado to please send them more water....LOL do you think we manufacture it?

We here in Colorado have been rationing water for as long as I can remember, and putting up with outrageous, and constantly growing water price increases in our water bills here in Denver Metro for a decade or two........

Oh well..........

And by the way...... something that makes me laugh here in Colorado.....Did everyone see where Coor's FINALLY had to remove from their labels: "Brewed with Colorado Spring Water," after lying about the source of the water for over 60-80? years?????? I think that their water source is/was Clear Creek. Clear Creek has at least 10 communities that treat their waste water and discharge it into Clear Creek above the Coors plant, to say nothing of the water that runs thru the mine trailings from century old ore processing which contained many chemicals used in extracting the gold from the ore......LOL as a teenager, we didn't drink Coors because we thought it tasted like piss.
Little did we know that the water used wasn't from springs, but from clear creek with all the treated waste from all the communities above Golden.......

AND another fun note about Colorado: We are, at long last, renaming city land marks, and all the higher peaks, getting rid of all the names of serious white supremacists that had a pronounced, racist place in Colorado History.....Stapleton Airport, Mount Evans, etc etc etc. Joseph Coors Senior was one of the biggest racists in the entire U.S. His family despised mostly Blacks and Mexicans, but Native Americans also. Many decades ago, when I was a child, he and all his cronies, all dressed in the classical white gowns and hoods would gather on the last Sunday of every month?, Put up a giant wood cross on Table Mountain near his Beer Plant, and overlooking Denver, and would light it on fire. I was a child, and my mother told me the purpose of the cross burning was to put all the "n-word" in Denver "on notice".....And as I recall, when Coor's sons were running Coors in the 70's, there was a major showdown between Coors and Mexican beer drinkers in Denver because at that time Coors refused to hire any Mexicans in their plant in Golden.......A lot of us sided with the Mexicans, and as I remember Coor's beer sales had a major drop, at least here in the Denver metro area.......

[AllaN01Bear]

15. i wish that they hadnt done that. now the water is going to be wasted willy nilly.

we need pernamant water restrictions not less or none . we are going to wind up in the same situation and start all over again. hem

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

19. I grew up in Michigan

and lived in So Cal (Fullerton) for about 15 years. I was always amazed at people hosing down the driveway or sidewalk. I wanted to ask them 'do you know this is a desert? That water is valuable'. Maybe they can manage it better going forward.

[ripcord]

21. Now everyone can go back to wasting water