For many locals, it seems incredulous. After endless drought warnings and parades of pictures showing sun-baked mud where reservoirs belong, officials suddenly face the opposite — too much water.
Maury Roos is chief hydrologist with the California Department of Water Resources.
“Part of the standard flood operation is to reserve space, empty space, in the state’s big reservoirs, foothill reservoirs during the flood season,” Roos said.
While mainly thought of as snow melt repositories for thirsty people, livestock and crops, they also protect California from flooding.
Roos said that last week, officials started releasing water from reservoirs at Shasta, Oroville, New Bullards Bar, Folsom, and Black Butte, along with Clear Lake. The releases made room for water that may get delivered by a surprise late season deluge.
Much of the water being released, though, is heading out to sea.
“You’d like to put it down where they need it really badly in the San Joaquin Valley and south, but right now, that’s not happening,” Roos said.
Restrictions on the state’s powerful Delta pumps — meant to save winter-run Chinook salmon and delta smelt from extinction — kept officials from pumping more than a third of what they otherwise could.
Nevertheless, water, at a rate of 5,400 cubic feet per second was being pumped south from the Delta last week, most of it into temporary storage at the San Luis Reservoir east of Gilroy.
Roos said that if the state’s $15 billion to $50 billion water tunnels were already operable, the amount of water being pumped south might be closer to three times the current rate, assuming there were no environmental restrictions.
