The American West is enduring its worst drought in 1,200 years, though California is doing better than some places following a string of record-breaking storms that pulled a lot of the state out of exceptional drought earlier this winter. “We’ve been in worse conditions,” said Macon after showing the board a map of the state’s depleted reservoirs.
But the drought is still severe in most of California, and the state’s projected rainfall is particularly worrying. February is usually California’s wettest month, but “we just had the driest January and February in California’s recorded history,” said Ekdahl. There is virtually no precipitation forecast for this month, and March is looking exceptionally dry as well. February has also been unusually hot throughout the state, and the deluge of rain and snow from earlier storms is starting to evaporate.
“The vast majority of this water is used for irrigated agriculture across the basin; there’s just no way around the footprint of irrigated agriculture shrinking,” Fleck told CNN.
The bigger problem is how to sustain agriculture and lawns.
“The future of the river is going to be about grass, it’s not going to be about indoor plumbing,” said Kuhn. “The action is outdoors. It’s crops and grasses.”
Last summer, Nevada banned nonfunctional grass that uses up too much water, and some cities are looking at planting native plants and grasses that don’t need constant watering.
Fleck said that even though the drought is anxiety-inducing, it also creates opportunities for the federal government, states and stakeholders to have a realistic conversation about how to save water.
“When the reservoirs are full, people blow it off,” Fleck said. “When they are draining, that’s when these opportunities arise. This creates a moment of opportunity; there are hard decisions to be made.”
