Sonoma County Gazette, August, 2014: The Drought

For California, the drought is worse than serious…..
There’s a drought on, turn the water off!”. This phrase appears everywhere lately. While summer is here, abundant water is not, and living with severely reduced supplies may become the new normal for 2015. The U.S. Drought Monitor designates the whole of California to be severely dry now and there is dire need to stretch our limited supplies as far as we can.

 

In our watershed, Lake Mendocino is the greatest concern with its water supply pool currently about 38% of capacity (compared to mid-July average of 67.3% for period 1959-2013). Lake Sonoma, which supplies urban water users and the lower river, is in better shape at around 68% (compared to mid-July average of 93.9% for period 1992-2013 ).