No matter if it’s a dry year or wet year, there are continued pleas for more water storage. Now, an American River Basin study is showing how a strategically placed high Sierra reservoir might be part of the water solution. The concern to capture Sierra runoff is seeing increased interest as California experiences even bigger climate whiplash years - going from droughts to floods. The big snowpack in the Sierra this year stands out as an anomaly with climate models forecasting more rain than snow falling in the lower mountains by the end of the century. The other concern is the earlier runoff and having to store and manage reservoir water over a longer period of time through the dry summer months. To help ease that tension, a new reservoir is being considered near Alder Creek in the Sierra. 

Related articles: 

• Western Water Rewind: As climate change erodes Western snowpacks, one watershed tries a ’supershed’ approach to sheild its water supply
• Santa Maria Sun: Reservoir project for Cuyama vineyard falls through
• Record Searchlight: With a fuller Lake Shasta, more water seeping from front of Shasta Dam