Environment

Low Snowpack Hurts California Water Supply

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published April 30, 2009 at 1:19 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The California Department of Water Resources issued its lowest ever initial estimate on how much water will be delivered from the State Water Project. Winter rain and snowfall may provide relief, but will likely not counteract three years of drought.

The last survey of the season in the Sierra shows that the snowpack is at two-thirds of normal for this time of year. The lack of snow may further restrict the water supply for cities and farms. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The state depends on the snowpack for much of the summer water supply.

The last snow survey of the season found the snowpack at 66 percent of a typical year across the Sierra.

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State Meteorologist Elissa Lynn says the third year of drought means supply from state and federal water projects will be near record lows this year.

"They may do some updates to those but the snowpack doesn't provide any assurance that you could raise those numbers," Lynn said. "So the big reservoirs that we have at the north end of the state were not able to fill. That definitely didn't occur. Those two, Oroville and Shasta, are somewhere between 60 to 70 percent of capacity."

She says the low snowpack and low reservoir storage combined with drought, restrictions on Delta pumping, and a growing population means California will be facing water supply issues for many years.

The San Diego County Water Authority last week told customers it would be reducing water deliveries by eight percent starting July 1.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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