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Enlarge / Heavy rain from a sequence of atmospheric rivers flooded giant components of California from late December 2022 into early January 2023.
California has seen a lot rain over the previous few weeks that farm fields are inundated and usually dry creeks and drainage ditches have grow to be torrents of water racing towards the ocean. But, many of the state stays in extreme drought.
All that runoff in the midst of a drought begs the query—why can’t extra rainwater be collected and saved for the lengthy, dry spring and summer time when it’s wanted?
As a hydrogeologist on the College of California at Santa Cruz, I’m enthusiastic about what will be performed to gather runoff from storms like this on a big scale. There are two main sources of large-scale water storage that would assist make a dent within the drought: holding that water behind dams and placing it within the floor.
Why isn’t California capturing extra runoff now?
When California will get storms just like the atmospheric rivers that hit in December 2022 and January 2023, water managers across the state most likely shake their heads and ask why they will’t maintain on to extra of that water. The fact is, it’s an advanced subject.
Commercial
California has large dams and reservoirs that may retailer giant volumes of water, however they are typically within the mountains. And as soon as they’re close to capability, water needs to be launched to be prepared for the following storm. Except there’s one other reservoir downstream, a variety of that water goes out to the ocean.
Video captures flooding from document rainfall on the final weekend of 2022.
In additional populated areas, one of many causes storm water runoff isn’t robotically collected to be used on a big scale is as a result of the primary runoff from roads is commonly contaminated. Flooding may trigger septic system overflows. So, that water must be handled.
You would possibly say, properly, the captured water doesn’t need to be consuming water, we may simply apply it to golf programs. However then you definitely would want a spot to retailer the water, and also you would want a solution to distribute it, with separate pipes and pumps, as a result of you’ll be able to’t put it in the identical pipes as consuming water.
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