By some estimates, more than have fallen on the state since the first storms hit in late December.
On a levee overlooking the swollen Sacramento River last week, a group of Republican state lawmakers criticized their Democratic colleagues and Governor Gavin Newsom for not prioritizing new projects to capture the deluge.
鈥淥verwhelmingly, that鈥檚 flowing out to sea and not being captured,鈥� said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, gesturing to the water, which was running high and fast. 鈥淣ot being set aside and utilized for all the purposes we have in California鈥� including farming and drinking water, he said.
Gallagher and other Republicans called it a 鈥渇ailure of leadership鈥� by Democrats and called for more investments in water storage, both above ground and below.
A large reservoir is planned for the northern Sacramento Valley but has been undergoing a lengthy permitting process. Construction at the is estimated to begin in 2024 with operations beginning in 2030.
According to the Sites Project Authority, the reservoir could have captured 120,000 acre-feet of water between Jan. 3 and Jan. 15 if it had been operational.
Typically, for one year.
In 2014, voters approved Prop. 1, a $7.5 billion bond for water storage projects including the Sites reservoir.
Newsom has approved $8.6 billion since 2021 on drought mitigation measures, including reservoir expansion and repair, improving water conveyance infrastructure, and streamlining permits for groundwater and new surface storage projects.
鈥淐alifornia isn鈥檛 waiting to act,鈥� Newsom said in a press release Thursday. 鈥淲e鈥檙e moving aggressively to modernize how we capture and store water to future-proof our state against more extreme cycles of wet and dry.鈥�
The governor has acknowledged the 鈥渁bsurd鈥� length of time it can take to get water projects permitted. In his state budget proposal this month, the governor said he has implemented 鈥渟trike teams鈥� between agencies to speed permitting for Sites and other Prop. 1 storage projects.
A put out by his administration last August set new targets for additional water storage, along with increased water recycling, desalination and conservation.
According to the report, California will lose 10 percent of its water supply over the next 20 years due to a warming climate.
A bill proposed by Assembly member Devon Mathis (R-Visalia) would codify Newsom鈥檚 water storage goals: 3.7 million new acre-feet of storage capacity by 2030 and 4 million by 2040.
鈥淭he governor set these goals,鈥� Mathis said. 鈥淭his is just codifying it so we can hold his feet to the fire.鈥�
According to the governor鈥檚 office, Prop. 1 projects including Sites would add 2.7 million acre-feet to the state鈥檚 water storage capacity 鈥� about three times the capacity of Folsom Lake.
The Division of Water Resources is also working to add 135,000 new acre-feet of storage to the San Luis reservoir, which is a critical water resource for farms in the San Joaquin Valley.
While the recent series of atmospheric rivers led to catastrophic flooding in parts of the state and, climate scientists say the state鈥檚 regular wet and dry cycles will only become more extreme in the future due to a warming climate.
Update: Now that the major, multi-week storm sequence has wrapped up in California, where it rank historically? Comparable to Jan 1969 and Jan 1995 on a statewide basis, but still below our ARkStorm 2.0 "ARkHist" scenario and well below our "ARkFuture" scenario.
— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West)
How do reservoirs stack up in storage capacity?
The storms have also boosted levels in the, though some 鈥� including Lakes Shasta and Trinity 鈥� are still below their historical average levels.
Jay Lund, Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, warns building new reservoirs 鈥� as some Republican lawmakers are calling for 鈥� would be costly and the total additional storage marginal.
鈥淚f you built all of the proposed reservoirs that are being talked about, it would add about 10% to [the state鈥檚 storage capacity] total and it would add about 1% to the amount of water available,鈥� he said.
Lund said new above ground storage 鈥渋s not going to be a game changer for floods or droughts in California.鈥�
Rather, he said the state should prioritize delivering more water to existing groundwater basins.
While out of sight, the state鈥檚 groundwater tables are vast: at capacity, they could hold between 850 million and 1.3 billion acre-feet of water. That鈥檚 compared to the less than 50 million acre-feet of storage at all California鈥檚 major reservoirs, according to Stanford鈥檚 Woods Institute for the Environment.
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