Governor Declares End To California Drought, Except Coachella Valley

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared an official end to California’s drought on Wednesday as state water officials reported one of the wettest years of snow buildup in the Sierra Nevada.

Brown ended the state of emergency declared by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2009 after three relatively dry winters. Schwarzenegger had declared a statewide drought in June 2008.

The announcement came after the Department of Water Resources reported Wednesday that the water content in the statewide snowpack is 165 percent of average for this time of year. The snowpack also was slightly above average last year.

This year’s snowpack is 174 percent of normal in the north, 163 percent in the central Sierra and 158 percent in the southern part of the range. Sierra snow provides a third of California’s water.

However, it’s a different story in the Coachella Valley, where the Coachella Valley Water District sent out a reminder: it’s always a drought in the desert.

“Gov. Jerry Brown’s lifting of the statewide drought declaration is a positive sign for the state’s water supply,” said General Manager Steve Robbins. “The more important factors are the condition of our aquifer and the reliability of our imported water supply.”

In the Coachella Valley, drinking water comes from a vast underground aquifer, which has been in a state of overdraft since the 1980s, he said. On average, Coachella Valley water users pump nearly three times more water out of the aquifer than is returned by natural and artificial replenishment.

Local water purveyors are taking a number of steps to combat overdraft by reducing demand on the aquifer, increasing imported supplies and encouraging conservation.

“It’s also important to note that just because above-ground reservoirs are overflowing and there is snow in the mountains, doesn’t mean all the state’s water problems have been solved,” Robbins said. “The State Water Project remains the center of legal battles, which is important to valley residents because CVWD and Desert Water Agency are State Water Project contractors with a combined entitlement that is the third largest in the state. This imported water is key to replenishing the aquifer. Despite the lifting of the drought declaration, the state is projecting that we will receive only 70 percent of our entitlement due to regulatory restrictions in the Delta.”