Saving the rain
In drought years, California’s depleted reservoirs are a visible reminder of the state’s water crisis. As dry periods drag on, its two largest reservoirs — Shasta and Oroville — start to look more like streams than lakes. But for every gallon of water no longer aboveground, gallons more are disappearing, largely unnoticed, from storage that can’t be seen from the highway. California’s underground aquifers can hold around eight to 12 times as much water as all its largest reservoirs combined. Yet over the past two decades, California’s Central Valley — the epicenter of the state’s agriculture industry — has been pumping groundwater at an accelerated rate. During the 2011-2017 drought alone, Central Valley aquifers lost more water than it takes to fill Lake Mead all the way to the top.