Paul Betancourt

We have seen the future of water in California this winter and it does not look good.

After 200% rainfall and historic snowpack, what do we have? They keep saying we are not out of the drought. But when it starts raining like this, that is — by definition — the end of a drought. How much rainfall do they need? Actually, I probably shouldn’t ask that. I probably won’t like their answer.

There are no average rainfall years in California.

There are wet years and dry years. We are idiots because we do not catch the rainfall from the wet years and save it for the dry years.

Last fall, I read the journals of famous American geologist Josiah Whitney’s right-hand man, William H. Brewer, who walked up and down California in the early 1860s and documented what he saw. One of the things he recorded was San Francisco rainfall. For the 1862 rain season, the area had 49.27 inches of rain. Two years later it was 10.08 inches. I am not here to argue about climate change, but I will point out this was the 1860s, long before the Industrial Revolution kicked in.

They are not serious about climate change.

How do I know this? Years ago, they were saying the future was less snow and more rainfall. If they were serious about climate change, they would build more storage to capture the rainfall they anticipate. But they don’t.

Now some of you are going to ask about groundwater storage. Fair enough. I have been asking for 20 years now. Groundwater storage where? I hear them talk about groundwater storage in Sacramento, but I have not found anyone to tell me, “OK, here are the sites we are going to use, and they can hold so much water.” What I do hear is, “We are not going to build anymore reservoirs because that is bad for the environment. We are going to use groundwater storage.” When I ask for details, they look a little confused. The end result? What we saw in January, a gazillion gallons of water running out to sea.

The State of California is better at turning fresh water into salt water than it is in taking care of our water needs for today or preparing for the future.

We have seen the future of water in California this winter and it does not look good.

They have mismanaged the water system the same way they have mismanaged the Sierra forests.

In the name of caring for the environment, they have mismanaged the Sierra forests and those forests will not be healthy again in my lifetime. Destroying the forests took a generation or two. We all watched this month what the future of water looks like in California and it does not look good. The dry years they scream “drought” and the wet years they let all that fresh water run out to sea. I hope Shasta will be full. Why isn’t the San Luis Reservoir full? The Delta smelt? If you can’t pump and fill your reservoirs when there is record rainfall from NINE atmospheric river events, you are never going to fill those reservoirs.

Why should we save water if they don’t?

How many gazillion gallons of water ran out to sea in January? OK, I am a little frustrated. I know — we live in a desert. I have long been committed to caring for the environment and being careful with water. But you get my point — they have washed a lot of water into the ocean and they want us to take spit baths and not water our yards. If we are not going store rainfall in a winter like this, when are we going to store water?

We have seen the future of water in California this winter and it does not look good.

So, what do we do?

There is no reason every reservoir should be filled to the brim by the start of summer. But what are we going to get? I predict there will be water restrictions by June 1.

The good news from these storms is there is a LOT of snow in the Sierra. They may have wasted all the rain fall, but they will have a harder time wasting all that snow.

We need to keep beating the drum. We can care for the environment AND provide water for our farms and our communities — if we don’t keep flushing all that beautiful, blessed rainfall out to sea.

We have seen the future of water in California this winter with the way Sacramento wants to manage things. It does not look good. I think we can do better.

 

Farmer, writer and educator, Paul H. Betancourt is a lecturer at Fresno State and written books on Swiss political history and environmental policy.