California suffers from mega-drought
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E-mail Xinhua, February 12, 2014
Every Thursday and Friday, Ken Hemer and his assistants use six small boats to push a floating dock out of mud under the water and reset it in case it gets stuck.
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Cachuma Lake, the source of drinking water for 200,000 people on the southern coast of Santa Barbara County, is seriously shrinking. [Photo/Xinhua] |
Last year, when Cachuma Lake contained more water and the water level was tens of feet higher, only one or two boats were needed to help Hemer accomplish the job.
Hemer has run a tackle shop and boat rentals at Cachuma Lake Recreation Area for three and a half years. He has witnessed the drought gradually sucking the water from the lake.
Driving along Chumash Highway, which hugs the side of the lake, people can hardly see the water without sticking their heads out the window.
California's reservoirs are holding only 39 percent of their combined capacity, when typically they should be 64 percent full by this time in winter, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Cachuma Lake, the source of drinking water for 200,000 people on the southern coast of Santa Barbara County, is seriously shrinking.
California is experiencing its worst drought in a century.
Governor Jerry Brown has declared an emergency and asked Californians to reduce water use voluntarily by 20 percent in January. And mandatory cuts of 20 to 50 percent have been applied to residences or businesses in almost a dozen communities.
Brown also warned 2014 could bring a "mega-drought" after last year saw only 7.48 inches (about 190 mm) of rain, the lowest total in 119 years of recordkeeping in California.
The California Department of Public Health announced a list of 17 communities and water districts that may face severe water shortages in 60 to 100 days.
The threatened towns and districts get their water in a variety of ways, from reservoirs to wells to rivers. But, in all cases, a largely rainless winter has left their supplies near empty.
"These systems all are experiencing challenges meeting customer need, and those challenges are exacerbated by drought conditions," department spokesman Matt Conens said.
Almost 99 percent of California is considered abnormally dry or worse, and almost two-thirds of the state is in extreme drought, according to a report released last Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a website that tracks drought nationwide.
"Up and down California, from Oregon to Mexico, it's dry as a bone," Jet Propulsion Lab climatologst Bill Patzert told the press. "To make matters worse, the snowpack in the water-storing Sierras (mountain ranges in California and Nevada) is less than 20 percent of normal for this time of the year."
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