From the Sierra to Santa Clara, it’s the message of the day: the snow survey is encouraging but is still a long way from ending the drought.
“This is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but it’s really just a start,” Santa Clara Valley Water District Chair Gary Kremen said. Wednesday, the Department of Water Resources found the snowpack to be 136 percent above the historic average.
Still, Kremen says there are four things needed before we can say we are drought free: above-average rain, above-average snow, full reservoirs and recharged ground water. It will take about two and a half years of serious rain and snow to get out of four years of extreme drought.
“Then we’ll be back. Hopefully it’ll happen, but I think we need to prepare for the worst,” Kremen said, explaining El Nino can make it harder to convince people to keep conserving. “The challenge is sometimes people slack off. We get some rain, it’s cold – oh, the drought’s over. That is not true at all.”
Los Gatos resident Nancy Wright admits she may backslide on conservation measures.
“I think we’ll probably go back to the way we were before,” Wright said, explaining she and her husband did not use much water from the start but have cut back on using the washing machine and dishwasher.
Wright has watched Lexington Reservoir levels go back up during her 16 years of living near the lake. Wednesday, the reservoir was at 12.6 percent capacity. Still, Wright finds it hard to imagine why a little more rain couldn’t go a long way.
“I don’t really believe them. I guess in a way I don’t really understand why if we get so much rain and the snow pack is so high now why that shouldn’t be enough to get us out of it,” Wright said.
Though water districts have implemented conservation measures and offered cash incentives to the public, Wright says she needs other encouragements.
“We’re grandparents and we really want the world to be a better place for our children and our grandchildren. I think if we thought we were taking away their wellbeing that that would be a huge motivator,” Wright said.
Santa Clara Valley Water District is taking steps to get administrative costs down so people’s rates do not go up despite conserving water, according to Kremen. He says there will be new financial incentives when the dry season comes around for people willing to change out their lawns and install low-flow fixtures.
Meanwhile, the State Water Board reported Californians are on track to meet Governor Jerry Brown’s 25 percent conservation mandate through at least February of next year.
