Tuesday Top of the Scroll: A 2-inch fish is limiting how much water can be captured for cities and farms
The most drenching storms in the past five years have soaked Northern California, sending billions of gallons of water pouring across the state after three years of severe drought. But 94% of the water that has flowed since New Year’s Eve through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a linchpin of California’s water system, has continued straight to the Pacific Ocean instead of being captured and stored in the state’s reservoirs. Environmental regulations aimed at protecting a two-inch-long fish, the endangered Delta smelt, have required the massive state and federal pumps near Tracy to reduce pumping rates by nearly half of their full limit, sharply curbing the amount of water that can be saved for farms and cities to the south.
Related articles:
- The New York Times: In a drought, California is watching water wash out to sea
- Los Angeles Times: What is California doing about wasted stormwater?
- ABC 23 – Bakersfield: California’s rain bounty slips into the ocean and drought-shocked Central Valley farmers want an explanation
- CalMatters: Opinion, by Dan Walters: Storms tell California to upgrade its plumbing
- KFI-AM – Los Angeles: The Protection Of Smelt Fish Limits Water Being Captured & Delta Pumping
- CalMatters:Opinion, by Gerald Meral: How California can prepare for future floods before a megastorm hit