Newsom is right to lift California’s drought restrictions, but he must prioritize water storage

Has it stopped raining yet?

Well, yes, it has, although there was a time this early spring in which it felt like one of the wettest California winters since records have been kept was just going to keep pouring merrily along.

But after three of the driest years ever in the Golden State, which lead to official declarations by an organization called the United States Drought Monitor that essentially all of California was suffering from drought conditions, all of our most populated areas, and our most essential agricultural ones as well, have been declared free from drought.

Related: In drought or flood, enviros want to make us miserable

Most importantly for our immediate water future, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is at a level that ties the previous all-time record from the 1950s. While the months of rain in our own backyards have been great for our Southern California suburban lawns — or xeriscapes, whatever —  it’s the coming late-spring and early-summer runoff into rivers from that melting snow that will fully enable us to turn on our kitchen taps or water the roses without worrying that the pipes will go dry.

For now, at least. The crazy ups and downs of dry-year streaks followed by a few wet ones is nothing new for the often-arid West.

But after the nine “atmospheric rivers” that drenched us in January and that continued to a lesser degree in the months thereafter, which the Drought Monitor calls “copious precipitation,” “Central California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills are now free of drought and abnormal dryness for the first time since January 2020.”

Californians can’t be faulted for saying, “Sure took them awhile.” During the months since Christmas, as our gutters overflowed, the headlines kept proclaiming, “Drought by no means over yet.” Don’t blame the headline-writers — that’s what the water experts kept pontificating.

But late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom finally faced the facts and agreed to end some of the hardline  water restrictions he had put in place for years and increase water supply to the agencies that bring it to us.

No more, the need for a 15% “voluntary” reduction in residential water use, instituted in July 2021, or the order a year ago last month for urban water suppliers themselves to cut back by about 20%.

Newsom said, “It’s incumbent upon us to continue to maintain our vigilance and maintain some provisions of the executive order to allow for fast tracking of groundwater replenishment projects, stormwater capture and recycling programs here in the state of California,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The governor is correct to note that there are other ways to store and conserve water than building dams and reservoirs. More water historically has been tapped from underground aquifers in California than ever could be kept topside behind infrastructure. And, as there will be plenty of dry years to come, we must invest more in finding ways to divert stormwater, especially in urban areas, from flood-control channels rather than seeing it merely run into the sea. Purple-pipe recycling of partially treated sewage water to irrigate landscaping is the only way that we are going to be able to afford to keep our parks — and golf courses, and roadway median strips — green in California’s future.

But it would have been nice to hear the governor pay at least lip service to speeding up major investment in surface-level storage as well. The long-stalled Sites Reservoir planned for east of Sacramento, for instance, could have diverted 250,000 acre feet of water for storage from Jan. 3 to March 13 because of the massive rains. Instead, that water was lost to use.

Construction of the two large dams to create the reservoir had been scheduled to start next year but likely will be delayed at least another year, bogged down in environmental reviews. Completion is now expected in 2030 or 2031. Sites will cost over $4 billion. That’s a lot. But the water we hope it will eventually save for Californians will be a lot cheaper than desalination, for instance. And than having the taps go dry again.