The uncertainty of our water supply will continue until we realize that our growth and development into a major urban/suburban area calls for developing new access to water; and given the situation we have with the plentitude of water from Sierra snow and Valley rain, our problem becomes one of storing more of what we already receive.
From our perspective, that calls for the construction of the Auburn Dam, which will provide other benefits.
For the salmon, better control of water flow and temperature they need for healthy spawning. The dam will provide much better flood control (at the 500 year level deemed vital for major urban centers) and for preserving the physical integrity of the Parkway which is continually eroded and degraded from high and fast river flows during periods of high water.
Snowpack low in water, but the winter is young
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, January 5, 2007
With snow blowing sideways Thursday, salting his mustache and eyebrows with frozen flakes, Frank Gehrke stabbed an aluminum tube into the snow at his feet and pulled up a sample of next summer's fun.
In a ritual decades old, Gehrke and partner Dave Hart then weighed this sample of Sierra Nevada snow to determine how much water will be available to melt into California lakes, swimming pools and gardens next summer.
The news wasn't great
.
At their Phillips Station measuring point -- elevation 6,800 feet along Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort -- the pair found the snowpack's water content only 65 percent of average for the winter so far. The statewide average is 59 percent.
No one is worried yet. This was just the first snow survey of the season. Two months of winter lie ahead.
