hetch hetchy reservoir level percentage

hetch hetchy reservoir level percentage

Love easy to read and understand information. How come the totals disagree with the cal map graphic? The upcountry portion of the System begins with Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. Very nice work. His recent work has examined the impacts of drought, threats to public lands and wildlife, and the nation's widening rural-urban divide. So while that is kind of good news, he said, things start to look more grim after January produced paltry rainfall and, so far, February has also been dry. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Fish and Wildlife Service that provides an immediate $4 million investment for habitat improvements for fisheries in the Tuolumne River. Arg. draining the reservoir to court, arguing in 2015 that the The BAWSCA agencies are therefore key stakeholders in ensuring the system serves as a reliable source of high quality water. Last week, I paid a visit to Hetch Hetchy. She has been with SFGATE for more than 10 years. This system encompasses more than 1,250 miles of distribution pipelines, as well as 12 in-City reservoirs and eight water tanks with a total storage capacity of approximately 413 million gallons. This is a great and very thoughtfully designed web site! Great work. Ive added it to my bookmarks for quick reference. I like the comparisons of last year, and the historical average. Forty-six percent . Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . The group says the recent plethora of water shows that the city could do without Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, by using other storage facilities that have filled and pursuing new projects to capture the surplus. It carried workers and materials for the dam, as well as tourists, postage and other amenities. Shasta is very large and could hold about 3.5 cubic kilometers of water at full (but not flood) capacity. Are they releasing water to relieve the pressure in anticipation of more water? The Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies water for San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, was at 77% of its 360,000-acre-feet storage capacity in January compared to 73% in December, and on Feb. 7, it was up to 82%. it will be cool if there is a way to track the change since Dec or some such date. Only improvement I would suggest is an improvement of the display of the smaller reservoirs so the names are readable. If you look at this chart for Hetch Hetchy, you can see that the biggest and steadiest rise is between March and July, https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P365D&compare=true. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. The water system, which includes the landmark Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, is expected to fill this winter, for the first time since 2019, with nearly 1.5 million acre-feet of water. Nice! best to drain the valley. maybe label the vertical axis with aggregate total or system total capacity. You dont see runoff right away, the snow is still up there, frozen, doing what we want it to do, he said. James Q. Martin / Restore Hetch Hetchy Show More Show Less 4 of 7 California drought: Charts show where reservoir levels stand after a dry January, Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area. reserved. To reach Hetch Hetchy, you have to exit Yosemite National Park and re-enter it. Hoping they start building more reservoirs soon. Kurtis Alexander is an enterprise reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, with a focus on natural resources and the environment. drained by the Tuolumne Hi Keith, you could de-select the large reservoirs from the menu at the top right. Official websites use .gov Just in case a large storm hits, that way they dont reach 100% capacity. Before joining the Chronicle, Alexander worked as a freelance writer and as a staff reporter for several media organizations, including The Fresno Bee and Bay Area News Group, writing about government, politics and the environment. This almost happened with the Orville Dam in 2017. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. All rights reserved. One of the big challenges in water management is controling the release. A different story is unfolding at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park, where water is being released to conserve and restore wildlife. generates electricity for the city). He frequently writes about water, wildfire, climate and the American West. CHERRY LK NR HETCH HETCHY CA Important Legacy real-time page Monitoring location 11277200 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Great graphs and very useful. YTD values are from January 1 . San Franciscos Hetch Hetchy water system is almost full for the first time in years. This site is a great tool, especially as we try to climb out of these drought years. reloadiframes(); The Bay Area's main reservoir is up 21 feet. Hetch Hetchy Level before the storm: 3,729.68 feet Level after the storm: 3,750.99 feet Total rise: 21.31 feet Storage before the storm: 221,500 acre-feet Storage after the storm: 257,800. Our flagship blog features analysis of news from our staff and announcements of upcoming events. San Francisco maintained the phrase only Owned by the city of San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Construction of the regional water system proceeded over the following 20 years, with water first delivered in 1934. I wonder why it doesnt work for you. the city wastes water, so it was a moot issue. Remaining Capacity text in the legend should be brown? March 12 - The Perks of California Native Wildflowers, March 28 - Rainwater Harvesting and Rain Gardens, April 01 - Lawn Conversion to Native and Drought-Tolerant Plants. The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. Thanks for taking the time to do that. The SFPUC gets the bulk of its water from a network of reservoirs in the central Sierra Nevada that have long altered flows of the Tuolumne River and its tributaries. Find out more about the system at http://www.sfwater.org, BAWSCA Board Policy Committee Meeting, April 12, 2023 1:30pm. This other page: https . http://www.tuolumnerivermanagementplan.com. I will take a look and see if there are other important reservoirs missing and may add them in the future. It wont be full until Spring snowmelt. The problem is that we have no idea of knowing ahead of time what kind of storms well have and how long theyll last, but the reservoir operators have to be super careful and extra cautious, so they periodically let the water flow out. The source water from SFPUC is typically from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Your email address will not be published. All of this work is nothing short of brilliant. At times, nearly 90% of the flow of the Tuolumne River is piped off by the SFPUC and other water agencies in the region. Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. This is a marimekko (or mekko) graph which may take some time to understand if you arent used to seeing them. Id love to see how much water is being / has been released from these reservoirs. Tracy Barbutes, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle, Heres where California reservoir levels stand after this weeks rains. Francisco Bay Area. Congressman Tom McClintock has re-introduced theYosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act, a bill that would allow non-motorized Sign up to receive blog posts and other news by email. Thanks for the link. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley will allow all three power plants to remain operational but will reduce power generation at these by about 20% an average of about 350 million kWh per year. Thinking more about it. Nate, thanks for the insight. It didnt end the drought, but it was definitely really good," said Ritchie. P.S. I havent spent much time looking at it but that data is on the CDEC website. Getting There. Water data back to 1930 are available online. You can also use it to monitor only the reservoirs you are most interested in. So many facets beautifully chartered. The information on Isabella has been fluctuating drastically (by a factor of 10!) At the moment, I am not interested in the debate. The tremendous inflow to city reservoirs during the recent storms, mostly in and around Yosemite National Park, has lifted San Franciscos total water storage to near capacity. Omar, Thanks! Prior to The Chronicle, she worked as a data journalist for Honolulu Civil Beat, a watchdog news organization covering the Hawaiian islands. As the system aged, especially in an era of heightened safety awareness following the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 and drought in the 1990s, it became evident that the system required a complete overhaul. I dont know if weve seen anything like this in October before.". This file photo shows Shasta Lake. do so. Folsom Lake is letting the water flow out. If you are on a computer, you can hover your cursor over a reservoir and the dashboard at the top will provide information about that individual reservoir. Reservoir levels rising. I previously made a bar graph showing the overall level of water in the major California reservoirs. globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px"; This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. . For the first week of February, there was a slight increase for most reservoirs from January amounts. So on Jan 10 were at 82% of the average for Jan 10. Lake Mendocino, which has a capacity of 122,400 acre feet, saw the biggest boost from 17% of storage capacity in December to 35% in January. Gavin Newsom asked all California residents to voluntarily reduce use by 15% compared with use in 2019. A small portion of the citys water comes from local reservoirs. . Water data back to 1956 are available online. Impounded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir water passes through hydroelectric powerhouses before it enters the San Joaquin Pipelines, the Tesla Ultraviolet Treatment Facility, and the Coast Range Tunnel on its journey to the Bay Area. In whats known as the Bay-Delta Plan, state water regulators are amid a years-long effort to negotiate a policy for how much water should be kept in rivers that flow to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to meet the needs of both people and wildlife. Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System The Hetch Hetchy watershed, an area located in Yosemite National Park, is the major source of water for all of San Francisco's water needs. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D. "This was rare for October. Maybe bad data. Similar to the water supply issues discussed above, the amount of power replacement is small in a statewide context less than of 1% of the renewable power supply being developed this decade alone. Winter weather conditions may cause road closures. After the reservoirs The height of the row indicates how much water the reservoir could hold. At the beginning of this water year, which started on October 1, 2022, the state's largest water reservoir, Lake Shasta, was a third full, at 33 percent. And more work is underway. While constructed and owned by San Francisco, the water system was in fact planned to benefit the greater San Francisco Bay Area population. The citys water system also includes a water bank at Don Pedro Reservoir along the Tuolumne River, which was full as of Feb. 1. It would be really interesting to visualize whether were able to replenish ground water this year after all the precipitation. Constitution used to support the arguments to remove the dam was Northern California's reservoir levels continued to rise in the week after an atmospheric river slammed the state with torrential rain and high winds. She is a University of Washington graduate. One acre-foot is the equivalent of one acre of land covered in one foot of water. She is also an alumna of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting Investigative Fellowship and The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Best of luck out there in California! Having it here would be great! How can I match up other monitoring locations similar to the ones on this Interactive Dashboard? For perspective, water demand across the SFPUCs service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. River. diversion of water? Restore Hetch Hetchy claimed the phrase had An official website of the United States government. This dashboard provides a bit more detail on the state of each of the reservoirs while also showing an aggregate total. While the rainfall has been bad for many people, I am happy to see Californias reservoirs are benefiting slightly, Amen! The reservoir was at 75 percent capacity as of May 5, totaling 269,963 acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is nearly 326,000 gallons). Sierra Club unsuccessfully fought the reservoirs establishment The area around Shasta has more volcanic soils that absorb rainfall than the Feather River drainage. Usually with warm ARs, you get a dramatic increase in inflow, which can fill even very large reservoirs relatively quickly, like Oroville in 2017. Thats up more than 400,000 acre-feet since early December, before the unrelenting series of atmospheric river storms blew through California between Christmas and mid-January. Department of Water Resources is just another in a long line of completely mismanaged California entities. FYI it looks like Isabella is reading incorrectly, likely because its well above 100%. "It's an increase of a few percent, . A question: the Historical Avg*, is it the value of year-today or natural year? Thank you for a beautiful job. Could you also show each reservoirs level as a function of time? environmental context. California reservoir levels: . Thanks for the prompt reply! Yep. The data on water storage comes from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Data Exchange Center. 501(c)3 organization, federal tax ID #942419885. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Charts from the California Department of Water Resources show conditions at key state reservoirs on Oct. 22 (left) and on Nov. 2 (right). San Francisco will be in great shape going into 2023, said Spreck Rosekrans, executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy Its unfortunate that too little is being done with these flows to recharge groundwater basins to help cities and farms and even restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley., Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. It used to be full (and beyond). 1 kaf is the amount of water that would cover 1 acre in one thousand feet of water (or 1000 acres in water in 1 foot of water). In 2021, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts launched a proactive pilot program with the U.S. By a large measure, damming and flooding Hetch Hetchy is the most significant damage ever allowed in any of our national parks. The SFPUC has voiced concerns with the Plan, as it would dramatically reduce the agencys water supply, leaving it subject to significant rationing in droughts and more extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change. A truly excellent project. In response to the Bay-Delta Plan, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts have proposed the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement, a combination of flow and non-flow measures sufficient to improve all life-stages of native fish populations in the lower Tuolumne River. Hetchy Reservoir can store as much as 117 billion gallons for the Echoing the sentiments of famed naturalist John Muir, members say the glacially-carved Hetch Hetchy Valley that the reservoir sits in is comparable in grandeur to Yosemite Valley and should not be flooded. I hear from the farmers that we waste 80% of the water by flushing it into the ocean. I also hear the environmentalists say, the streams and wildlife need water, so flush it into the ocean. Its an interesting dilemma. the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state. Other California water agencies have done far more to reduce the impact of their system on Mono Lake, the Trinity and San Joaquin Rivers, and the Bay-Delta. Its essential to understand that the dispute over San Franciscos use of Hetch Hetchy is not about the use of water only how it is stored. One of the most impressive was Hetch Hetchy, which provides drinking water to 2.6 million people in San Francisco and other Bay Area communities. The SFPUC has consistently stated that voluntary agreements are the best path forward for the Bay-Delta, as the voluntary agreement strikes the right balance between environmental stewardship and water reliability. construction in the 1920s, various groups have lobbied to restore Especially for small ones it is hard to identify them and click on them. Important Legacy real-time page. But it has flooded nine miles of a glacier-carved valley and blocks access to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and other nearby areas. For the higher elevations, more of their water comes directly from snowmelt. I have to agree with many people here what a great job making such a clear graph of whats happening. GNSS2 - Level 2 Quality Survey Grade Global Navigation Satellite System. Partly because of low water, the rivers chinook salmon runs have plummeted from tens of thousands of fish annually a few decades ago to fewer than 1,000 in recent years. But tearing down O'Shaughnessy Dam in order to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley would be a disaster. For detailed analysis of how San Franciscos water system will operate without Hetch Hetchy reservoir, see the Environmental Defense Funds studiesParadise RegainedandCherry Intertie Alternative. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. At the same time, theyve also said its critical to maintain sufficient water supplies to keep Bay Area communities and its economy running during a prolonged drought. Water storage facilities include watersheds, dams, and reservoirs including: Calaveras, San Antonio, Crystal Springs, Pilarcitos, and San Andreas. Really appreciate the work you did to build this graph. How can I apply to SFPUC? Interesting. Its promising, but too early to let our guard down, said Joseph Sweiss, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the citys water purveyor, in an email to The Chronicle. Located in the northwest portion of Yosemite National Park, Hetch It certainly looks dry at least until the last week in February, he said. Francisco Public Utilities Commissions 26 wholesale customers Great visualization Chris! Copyright 2023Water Education Foundation. There are many very small reservoirs (relative to Shasta) so the bars will be very thin to the point where they are barely a sliver or may not even show up. BAWSCA agencies advocated for the capital improvement program that was adopted by the SFPUC in 2002, and are actively monitoring its implementation. Read more about the data team and their work. The reservoir is now projected to cost $4.4 billion, with Prop. Heres an example of that data for Shasta, where you can see the daily inflows and outflows: Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? Yoohyun Jung is the Deputy Data Editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. Didnt realize how bad things were there. Generation at Holm powerhouse below Cherry Lake would be less affected. Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. A lock ( }, false); Lake Tahoe really isnt part of California water, as the outflow goes to Nevada. I am grateful for all that you have done here to open our eyes to what is happening, what has happened, and even what might be on the horizon. If you are reading this, its probably the winter rainy season in California again, and time to check on the status of the water in the California reservoirs. }, 150); Thank you so much for the hard work! Over the summer, Gov. . Eighty-five percent of the water comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt stored in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir situated on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. Current and Historical Visualization, https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=HTH, https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=SHA, https://engaging-data.com/ca-reservoir-level/, https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES, Visualizing Californias Water Storage Reservoirs and Snowpack, Interactive California Reservoir Levels Dashboard. I love this this site too. the issue, including those under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Draining Hetch Hetchy without depriving Bay Area residents of Together, the BAWSCA agencies account for two-thirds of water consumption from the system and pay for two-thirds of its upkeep. What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? Great stuff. No it is correct. During late summer and early fall, it will be necessary to move stored supplies from Cherry or Don Pedro Reservoirs into the pipeline. The maximum that the city has put away is 570,000 acre-feet of water. It updates hourly using data from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) website, giving an up-to-date picture of California reservoir levels. If you are on a mobile device you can tap the reservoir to get that same info. Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. For most of the year it will still be possible to divert the flow of the Tuolumne River into the pipeline just downstream of the National Park boundary. Lock And while one storm didn't come close to ending the drought, some reservoirs in Northern California, especially those that fell right in the path of the storm, saw significant gains. Lake Oroville. Reservoir behind OShaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. Only modest new supplies would be required in the driest years. I live in the central valley. Thank you! } "Soils that have become hydrophobic due to wildfire can also contribute to increased runoff because the water is less able to penetrate the burned soil," the department said. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander. I am new to the state. Could the reason be that the water from Lake Alma or seems to be used for energy generation, and that there does not seem to be any agricultural or urban use? Hetch-Hetchy predicted to fill by end of the snowmelt period 2020-2021 Winter season continues to be dry 2019-2020 was dry, although key differences Feb. 2020 was unusually warm, which impacted snowfall levels and water demands; Feb 2021 was cooler, and hence snowfall level higher and water use lower I have wanted to do exactly this plot for years. These graphs will always read low because they represent the percentage of the seasonal average at some point before the end of the season. //this function is called from the javascript from within the iframe after the contents of iframe are loaded (and after an additional 150ms delay)

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