Re: Democrat run California under flood threat WASTES millions of gallons from reservoir, despite drought

[Your Democrats]

On 26 Jan 2022, Trump Mentally Handicaped <fd...@gmail.com> posted some
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> Dr. Anthony Fauci accessory to murder.

LOS ANGELES — As a series of atmospheric rivers pummeled California with
heavy rain and residents braced for potential flooding, on Friday the
state began releasing millions of gallons of water from a major reservoir
— despite ongoing drought conditions.

The release at Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir and
home to the nation's tallest dam, was the first since 2019 and came as a
precaution against flooding to communities downstream in case of a
possible spillover.

The shift from water conservation to flood prevention is just the latest
in a winter weather whiplash in California, where 85% of the state was in
severe drought three months ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Now just 19% of the state falls into that category.

“Water management in California is complicated, and it’s made even more
complex during these challenging climate conditions where we see swings
between very, very dry; very, very wet; back to dry,” Karla Nemeth,
director of the Department of Water Resources, said at a Friday briefing.
“We’re now back into wet.”

An atmospheric river known as the “Pineapple Express” because it carries
warm, subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, is
expected to melt snow at lower elevations. California's mountain ranges
have built up significant snowpack this winter because of an onslaught of
rain from nine atmospheric rivers and from storms fueled by blasts of
arctic air.

The massive snowpack at high elevations is expected to absorb the rain,
but snowmelt at elevations below 4,000 feet prompted the state Department
of Water Resources to activate its flood operations center.

Water releases for flood control were underway or planned for some
reservoirs that were depleted during three years of drought and have been
filling with the winter’s extraordinary rains and snowfall.

The idea of releasing water that will eventually flow into the Pacific
during a time of drought may seem counterintuitive, but state officials
said they have to prepare for the possibility of floods.

"The primary management objective of flood operations is to reduce the
risk of downstream flooding rather than conserve for the dry season to
come," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"It suggests that inflows are big enough and the reservoirs levels are
high enough that officials don't want anymore water stored in them for
safety reasons," he added.

California counts on a system of about 1,400 human-made surface reservoirs
and thousands upon thousands of miles of levees to manage surface water.
About two dozen large reservoirs are responsible for more than half of the
overall storage.

The reservoirs are designed not only to store water, but to manage
streamflows during periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt so downstream
communities don’t flood.

Of the state’s 17 major reservoirs, seven are still below their historical
averages this year. Water releases are also expected at Friant Dam, in
central California, to free up space in Millerton Lake, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“After three years of drought and low lake elevations, it’s really good to
see the lake rising from the standpoint of providing water to the local
community and the statewide water users as well,” said Ted Craddock,
deputy director of the State Water Project.

Because so much of California’s water reserves come from snowmelt at high
elevations, water officials expect reservoirs to continue filling up
through the spring.

As of this week, California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about
one-third of the state’s water supply, is more than 180% of the April 1
average, when it is historically at its peak.

“We know drought conditions will return to California, and it’s really
these moments that we have to capture so we can be resilient in the event
of future dry conditions,” Nemeth said.

Lake Oroville’s supply has risen 180 feet since Dec. 1 and was just 60
feet below capacity before Friday’s storms. Capable of storing more than
3.5 million acre-feet, officials planned to release some 15,000 cubic feet
per second. An acre-foot supplies enough water for two typical households
for one year, water officials say.

The lake is crucial to the State Water Project, which provides water to
about 27 million residents and flood protection to downstream communities.

The reservoir was repaired in 2018 after a massive flood collapsed the
main spillway and forced more than 180,000 people to evacuate.

Craddock expressed confidence in the 1960s-era Oroville Dam and said
upgrades to the spillway have been “reconstructed to modern standards, and
we’re very confident that it will be able to pass the flows that are
coming into Lake Oroville.”

<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-releases-millions-
gallons-water-reservoir-drought-rcna74381>