Friday Top of the Scroll: As early season heat wipes out Sierra snowpack, can a new approach help California catch more runoff?
To replenish California’s chronically depleted aquifers, the state’s Department of Water Resources is taking a hard look at a new line of attack: Pairing more sophisticated reservoir operations with groundwater recharge. Water managers are aiming to make greater use of the increased floodwater that’s expected to come with flashier, more intense storms and earlier snowmelt. The new approach is known as FIRO-MAR, which stands for Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations-Managed Aquifer Recharge. In December, DWR released a study focused on the five main tributary watersheds of California’s second-largest river, the San Joaquin, that provides the most comprehensive assessment of the concept’s potential yet.
Other California snowmelt and water supply news:
- CalMatters (Sacramento, Calif.): California’s snowpack is vanishing fast — and summer hasn’t even started
- San Francisco Chronicle: Northern California drought could return by summer, forecasters warn
- Los Angeles Times: Why unprecedented March heat wave has experts worried about what comes next
- KTLA (Los Angeles): ‘Abnormally dry’ conditions return to parts of California amid March heat wave
- Bay Nature (Berkeley, Calif.): When summer heat arrives in March
- Sacramento Bee: Opinion: Are we entering the next California drought? It will be like none other
