California has seen a lot rain over the previous few weeks that farm fields are inundated and usually dry creeks and drainage ditches have turn out to be torrents of water racing towards the ocean. Yet, a lot of the state stays in extreme drought.
All that runoff in the midst of a drought begs the query—why can’t extra rainwater be collected and saved for the lengthy, dry spring and summer season when it’s wanted?
As a hydrogeologist on the University of California at Santa Cruz, I’m concerned with what might be completed to gather runoff from storms like this on a big scale. There are two major sources of large-scale water storage that might assist make a dent within the drought: holding that water behind dams and placing it within the floor.
Why isn’t California capturing extra runoff now?
When California will get storms just like the atmospheric rivers that hit in December 2022 and January 2023, water managers across the state in all probability shake their heads and ask why they will’t maintain on to extra of that water. The actuality is, it’s an advanced problem.
California has large dams and reservoirs that may retailer giant volumes of water, however they are usually within the mountains. And as soon as they’re close to capability, water needs to be launched to be prepared for the subsequent storm. Unless there’s one other reservoir downstream, a whole lot of that water goes out to the ocean.
Video captures flooding from report rainfall on the final weekend of 2022.
In extra populated areas, one of many causes storm water runoff isn’t mechanically collected to be used on a big scale is as a result of the primary runoff from roads is usually contaminated. Flooding may trigger septic system overflows. So, that water must be handled.
You may say, effectively, the captured water doesn’t should be consuming water, we may simply apply it to golf programs. But then you definitely would wish a spot to retailer the water, and also you would wish a technique to distribute it, with separate pipes and pumps, as a result of you’ll be able to’t put it in the identical pipes as consuming water.