WATER, WATER, WATER or the lack thereof is a major concern in California. The Governor’s Declaration of a State of Emergency on 17 Jan 14 triggered reactions supposedly designed to address drought issues at every level of government. Our Congressmen and Legislative representatives seem to be in a competition to determine who can be first to get legislation passed to save us from this terrible drought.
We cannot control our weather and there is no doubt that thus far we have seen a number of dry years. California climatic conditions have been tracked and studied for over a century. The collected data shows that for the most part California is an arid region prone to sometimes lengthy periods of drought punctuated with intense storms giving rise to severe flooding. Over the years we have managed to dam most of our rivers, create diversion canals and do just about everything known to man to control and impound every available drop of surface water.
However, most of the water flowing into California reservoirs comes from a very few watershed areas. When those areas experience dry periods the reservoirs will not fill. Sounds fairly basic; yet we continue to periods of panic every few years as these reservoirs do not fill. It is interesting to note that most of our reservoirs were actually constructed as flood control projects and perhaps a benefit to this period of intense activity will be the realization that we need to build some redundancy into our water control systems.
BEWARE! My deepest concern is government’s propensity for overreaction. Regulations and legislation passed in a panic situation rarely result in good outcomes and frequently have far reaching unanticipated consequences. With the State of Emergency Declaration legislation will be passed, safeguards will be waived, rights will be abrogated and another level of bureaucracy will be created. A quote from Winston Churchill seems appropriate; “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. An example is Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) reaction to our drought. In their letter of 6 Feb 14, FERC offers, among other things, the following: “In order to assist the licensees of hydropower projects in responding to the drought conditions, staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is prepared to act swiftly to review requests to amend licenses on a temporary or longer-term basis, as appropriate, in order to conserve water resources at FERC-licensed hydroelectric projects.” (read more) So….Does this mean all the agreements and regulations put in place during a relicensing project don’t count? Who knows? FERC’s action could have benefits to Lake Almanor and the 2105 Project or it could produce harmful results.
Plumas County has formed a Drought Task Force to address the current situation as it impacts Plumas County. Supervisor Terry Swofford and I are the Board of Supervisors representatives on this task force. I volunteered to participate in this effort because I want to be sure any actions Plumas County takes are well thought out and address real problems. Our first meeting is scheduled for Monday (10 Feb 14). As I write it is snowing with snow and rain predicted for the next 10 days. I am remembering February & March 2011; 
perhaps we will need to be shoveling snow and/or looking at flood conditions? Remember, dry periods and flooding periods are all part of the normal cycle in beautiful California!
Stay tuned for information as our task force moves forward.
