California revives program to buy water from farmers

by Amy Judd | September 5, 2008 at 11:48 am

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California is reviving the dormant 17-year-old program to buy water from the Sacramento Valley farmers to then sell to the Southern California agencies. This is all due to the water reserves being all but gone, and the a year ahead of skimpy precipitation.

"We're hoping for the best, that we're going to have a good storm season and be able to meet the needs of California," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow. "However, we would be negligent if we didn't prepare for the worst."The bounty of the state's biggest reservoirs, which supplied the state through the last two dry years with Sierra and Cascade mountain snowmelt, is disappearing. Major reservoirs, including Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville, are now at half of what is typical for this time of year.

"There are a number of scenarios where we do not regain our snow pack," Snow said, "and because our storage is low, we're really in a lot of trouble."

Environmentalists say that this winter may bring less precipitation than last year however.

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Hesperia2007

at 14:38 on September 5th, 2008

My Lake Oroville picture was taken in Washington State. What does that have to do with California?

master_jim2008

at 14:41 on September 5th, 2008

another reason I got out of california

Priti Hansia

at 15:18 on September 5th, 2008

This is the first time I had seen Shasta Lake. So I can't really comment on this.

Priti Hansia has contributed a photo to this story.

Dale Edmondson

at 16:05 on September 5th, 2008

Dark Canyon Road runs 5 miles down into the water

Dale Edmondson has contributed a photo to this story.

janetciucci

at 17:05 on September 5th, 2008

This photo was taken in May of 2006 when the lake was still pretty full. The lake was only about 20 feet down. Now with the low rainfall the last couple years it is now down 137 feet.

janetciucci has contributed a photo to this story.

tungston33

at 20:26 on September 5th, 2008

This photo was taken on the way up to Crater Lake. Northern California was very hazy due to all the wildfires and no rain.

tungston33 has contributed a photo to this story.

Homopostalis Digitalis

at 21:16 on September 5th, 2008

I was just there to take a great photo, but I soon realized the ever decreasing level of water on the lake.

Homopostalis Digitalis has contributed a photo to this story.

Darryl Leung

at 00:25 on September 6th, 2008

I was just at Lake Shasta about a month ago and the drop in water level is definitely noticeable. It was my first time there and I was disappointed since I had heard it was a pretty beautiful lake.

Sunsplash

at 13:18 on September 6th, 2008

Having visited Oroville more recently than my contributed photos, I can say I was pretty shocked at how low the lake is. My photos were taken in May of 2004. I took them because I was shocked at the contrast of the reddish dirt next to the lake instead of the tree line. Needless to say, now there is at least a 100 feet of the dirt like this in the summer of 2008.

I feel sad for those who use this lake as recreation. They've had to move most of the boat parking more into the lake because of the low levels. They've also had issues with boat ramps because the lake was never intended to get that low.

Sunsplash has contributed a photo to this story.

abdoumichael

at 10:41 on September 7th, 2008

I was kayaking on Lake Siskiyou on a very clear summer day. I came upon this interesting reflection of Mt Shasta and Shastina in the ripple of the water. It lasted only a few minutes but was special.

abdoumichael has contributed a photo to this story.

RVWithTito

at 10:20 on September 8th, 2008

Driving through the Shasta Lake area in late March of this year (2008) on our way south, I was struck by the water level in the lake. It was noticeably lower than it had been on previous trips through the area.

RVWithTito has contributed a photo to this story.