With the dry season just beginning, two large California reservoirs are at “critically low levels”

Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In the midst of the water crisis that has been happening in the Colorado River basin, where the largest reservoirs in the United States are running out of water at an alarming rate, so the two largest water reservoirs in the state of California, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are in a very similar situation.

The periods of little rain and layers of snow, coupled with increasingly strong heat waves, have directly contributed to the unstoppable drought conditions of several years in the entity.

According to this week’s report from Drought Monitor of United States United, the two reservoirs are at “critically low levels” at a time of year when they should be higher.

Lake Shasta this week is only at 55 % of full capacity, the lowest level it has had at the beginning of May, since record keeping began in 1977. Likewise, Lake Oroville, located in southern California, is located at 55% of its capacity, which should be at 70% at about this time.

Lake Shasta is the largest reservoir in California and the backbone of the California Valley Project, a water system made up of 19 dams and reservoirs, as well as over 500 miles of canals, running the length of Redding north to the south where the drought-stricken landscapes of Bakersfield are.

Shasta water levels are below half the historical average.

According to the United States Bureau of Reclamation, only agricultural customers who hold high-level water rights and some irrigation districts east of the San Joaquin Valley are the only ones who will be provided water from the East Central Valley Project 2022.

“We anticipate that in the Sacramento Valley alone, more than 80,000 acres of farmland,” Mary Lee Knecht, public affairs officer for the Office’s California Great Basin Region, told CNN. In perspective, it is an area larger than Los Angeles.

“The cities and towns that receive the water supply , including Silicon Valley communities, have been reduced to just health and safety needs.”

According to Jessica Gable of Food & Water Watch, a non-profit advocacy group, said that The imminent summer heat and water scarcity will affect the most vulnerable populations in the state, especially the agricultural communities.

“California communities will suffer this year during the drought, and it is just a question of how much more they will suffer”, Gables said.

“Usually it is the most vulnerable communities that are going to suffer the worst, so the Central Valley, because this is an already arid part of the state, with most of the state’s agriculture and most of the state’s energy development, which are both water-intensive industries.”

Both Lake Shasta and Oroville are a vital part of the largest vital liquid system in the state, which are interconnected by canals and rivers.

Even if the small reservoirs have been replenished by winter rains, the low levels of both lakes could still affect and drain the rest of the water system.

The state of California relies on storms and winter precipitation to accumulate snow in the Sierra Nevada, which then gradually melts in the spring and replenishes reserves.

Gable said he envisions a hotter, drier future than anyone has ever experienced before, and state officials and residents need to rethink how that is managed water across the board, otherwise California will remain unprepared.

“Water is supposed to be a human right,” Gable said. “But we’re not thinking about that, and I think until that changes, unfortunately, water scarcity will continue to be a symptom of the worsening climate crisis.”