Water Agency Warns Cities, Industry to Prepare for 4th Year of Drought

The Pit River Bridge stretches over a drying section of Shasta Lake in Lakehead, Calif., on Oct. 16, 2022. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Federal and state water agencies are warning California water users to prepare for a fourth year of drought as the state again faces water storage shortages.

The state expects another year of extreme drought following three of the driest years on record, as reported last month by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

In response, the State Water Project, which serves about 27 million Californians, 29 public water agencies, and about 750,000 acres of farmland, will only allocate 5 percent of requested water next year, the Department of Water Resources announced on Dec. 1. This is an increase from last year’s allocation of zero percent, although that amount was later raised to 5 percent.

“This early in California’s traditional wet season, water allocations are typically low due to uncertainty in hydrologic forecasting. But the degree to which hotter and drier conditions are reducing runoff into rivers, streams and reservoirs means we have to be prepared for all possible outcomes,” Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said.

Houseboats are moored on a shrinking arm of the Oroville Lake reservoir which is now at less than 25 percent capacity as a severe drought continues to affect California on May 24, 2015. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Lake Oroville, the water project’s largest reservoir, ended its 2022 water year in October with just over half of its average water storage, which was higher than last year’s record-low level.

As a result, California is conserving existing water storage at Lake Oroville, located in Northern California, to prepare for future dry conditions. The initial 5 percent allocation for the State Water Project would be met by flows from winter storms entering the Delta and water stored in the San Luis Reservoir, the state’s water resources department reported.

If storage levels in Lake Oroville improve this winter, the department said it will consider increasing the water allocation. The department is also working with senior water rights holders on the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California to monitor conditions and assess water supply.

California typically gets half its rain and snow by the end of January. Water managers will reassess conditions monthly throughout the winter and spring, according to the water resources department.

Water flows through the California Aqueduct, which moves water from northern California to the state's drier south, in Kern County in Taft, Calif., on May 4, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Last year, the state granted four of the 29 water contractors additional water supplies for approved health and safety reasons.

The department may also seek a temporary urgency change petition and re-installation of a water salinity barrier in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation also asked its contractors and industrial water users to begin planning for a potential extremely limited water supply for the 2023 water year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2023.

The Central Valley Water Project began the water year in October with water storage reservoirs near historic lows, the bureau reported on Nov. 28.

Shasta Reservoir, the state’s largest reservoir and cornerstone of the Central Valley project, was at 31 percent capacity. If the drought continues, the federal bureau will find it “increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to meet all the competing needs of the Central Valley Project without beginning the implementation of additional and more severe water conservation actions,” officials said in a news release.

California’s industries, including agriculture, lost nearly $2 billion and 19,420 jobs this year as a result of the three-year drought, according to a report by the University of California–Merced and Public Policy Institute of California.