The Drought Situation

For more than five years, California has been running low on water supply. But with the recent heavy rainfall, is the drought over?

“This winter much of California has experienced precipitation levels that are well above average,” said retired director of water resources, Mark Cowin.

Recently we have received a lot of rainfall, flooding parts of the Bay Area. With all this water, people are becoming more and more curious if the drought is in fact over.

According to Cowin, the general state wide drought lasted 5 years from 2012 to 2016, along with the record low statewide mountain snowpack that made up 5% of the average.

Also, the Sacramento River experienced its driest period since the 1950’s.

“California is still in a drought,” stated Jim Cartan, the stewardship and outreach director of the Save Mount Diablo organization, on whether the California drought is officially over or not.

Making it even more unclear to know if it is or not, Cowin stated, “While localized drought conditions remain in some areas, by most measures the current statewide drought is over.”

And Doug Carlson, Information officer of the Department of Water Resources, said “It may be “over” as far as some locations are concerned, but it’s not been declared officially “over.”

So it is suffice to say that it is unclear at this time to declare the drought “officially” over.

While our streets and neighborhoods are flooding, our local wildlife is having to cope for themselves. “Increased precipitation will result in increased forage for mammals, increased flowering plants for pollinators and other insects in the spring, and increased water flow for fish and other freshwater organ- isms,” said Cartan concerning Mount Diablo and its inhabitants.

The high levels of water on Mount Diablo are working out for the best when it comes to the lives of our furry friends, underwater creatures, forestry and every other creature taking up residency in the mountain side.

But not everyone is as concerned about the well being of the wild when our livelihoods are also at risk.

“I urge all Californians to always use water efficiently, no matter if it is wet or dry in any given day, month or year.” said Cowin.

No matter what comes of our water sup- ply situation, we should always keep a watchful eye on our water usage.