Doubts Grow Over California's Drought
Critics Accuse Governor Schwarzenegger Of Playing Politics With Water Supply
KTVU
05/19/2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As the Bay Area and much of the rest of California suits up for still another likely set of rainy days, a growing number of water experts around the state are declaring the drought is over – and questioning why the governor will not.
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spokesmen say it is untrue, many people say the governor is holding on to his declaration of drought emergency for purely political reasons.
At the top of that political agenda, they say, is his hope to get Californians to borrow another $11 billion dollars for a controversial rebuilding of the state water supply structure, restart the old Peripheral Canal proposal and hang on to the eligibility to get as much as $40 million dollars in federal stimulus funds.
"2010 is really not a drought year,” said Spreck Rosekrans of the Environmental Defense Fund. "Look at the rain, look at the snow, look at the rivers, look at the reservoirs. We're not in a drought anymore."
The numbers tell the tale.
Year-to-date rain totals for all of California are 143 percent of normal, and for Northern California 188 percent of normal. The snowpack in the Sierra is above average, with Donner Pass showing a dramatic 47 feet compared to a normal depth at this time of year of almost 30 feet. And the state’s biggest reservoir, Shasta is more than 110 percent above normal.
On the other hand, state water officials defending the ongoing declaration of drought emergency point out the largest state-owned reservoir, Oroville, is at 77 percent normal for this time of year.
"I can assure you our calculations of how much water we can deliver are not politically motivated,” says Matt Notley, spokesman for the governor’s Department of Water Resources.
"One wet year can't reverse the effects of three consecutive dry years. For all we know this could be one wet year in the middle of a seven year drought."
Hydrologist Peter Vorster of the Bay Institute, like virtually all California water experts, agrees the long term look for distributing water is a crisis in the making.
But he also says there is no drought right now, and saying there is can imperil hopes for future solutions.
"Drought invokes fear. The 'drought crisis' gets people all riled up," he remarked. "The government, that operates this, tell us we're in a drought emergency when there isn't, their credibility is undermined."
Meanwhile, at the other major water distribution agency in the west – the federal Bureau of Reclamation – the tone is considerably more optimistic.
