How can state officials manage what they have never measured? They can’t! This basic fact is the driving force in California’s current water crisis … you can’t manage what you don’t know and the only way to know when it comes to water is to measure it.
We’re talking here about the Delta watershed, which supplies the water for both the state and federal water systems that send water south to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Two studies have been done to measure this water supply: the California Water Impact Network and the UC Davis independent studies. Both concluded that consumptive water rights claims are at least five times more than what is normally supplied. And it’s much worse, of course, in times of drought.
In plain language, this means that every drop of water has been promised at least five times over. And exacerbating this whole dilemma is climate change. This year, there was no snow pack … zero … by May. Snowpack is a major source of stored water. We cannot count on that to be there as before.