Reservoir behind OShaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. Units are in kaf, thousands of acre feet. Constitution used to support the arguments to remove the dam was It seems likely one of those two readings is wrong. document.getElementById('globes').contentWindow.location.reload();
The middle portion of the watershed from New Don Pedro Reservoir to above Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is characterized by deep canyons and forested terrain. ", The difference in soil type in the two watersheds was likely another factor. November 10, 2022 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water-Policy Officials, SFPUC, and Districts Sign MOU for Tuolumne River to Help Recover Salmon While Protecting Water Reliability. He frequently writes about water, wildfire, climate and the American West. use must be reasonable.. Turn right on to Hetch Hetchy Road - Evergreen Road and continue another 7.5 miles to the parking area for Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir next to the dam. Quite an eye opener. Thats enough to supply the citys service area for perhaps seven years. Isabella is filling quite slowly in order to test out the new $500 million spillway. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park can store up to 117 billion gallons of drinking water that is used for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System that provides water for 2.6 . The windfall of water is welcome news for households and businesses in San Francisco, which use less water on average compared to the rest of the state but nonetheless have faced calls to cut back since 2021 because of water shortages. But I would never have imagined how to put all the important information into a single plot. Water data back to 1956 are available online. reloadiframes();
Ive been meaning to search for aquifer levels. At this facility, which is shared with other water agencies, the city can stash water for credits against future draws on the river. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite was 69 percent full on Tuesday, 150 percent of normal for this time of year. 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. Kellie Hwang is the newsletter editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. lawsuit, saying Restore Hetch Hetchys arguments were preempted Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . "This was rare for October. dam and restoring the valley. Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. In Yosemite National Park, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir relies. Trailhead coordinates: 37.946905, -119.787376 (37 56 48.85N 119 47 14.55W) You can find the charts below from the California Department of Water Resources website. It would be really interesting to visualize whether were able to replenish ground water this year after all the precipitation. San Franciscos water-bank in Don Pedro Reservoir, downstream on the Tuolumne River, holds twice as much water as Hetch Hetchy. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. however, Ill update the code to include it soon. What period does CA use for Historical Average? It will be very different depending on the period chosen. Is that from melting snow and rain water coming from the mountains and filling it up? The OShaughnessy Dam, which was completed in 1938 and is 430-feet tall, impounds water in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir for communities in the Bay Area. Wonderful site. We provide water directly to customers in San Francisco and wholesale through 26 Water agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties. Gavin Newsom asked all California residents to voluntarily reduce use by 15% compared with use in 2019. So its volume is counted as Orville inflow. 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. The amount stored is increasing, just not by a lot. It does not meet the California definition of renewable energy. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NAVD 1988, LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929, and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. the city wastes water, so it was a moot issue. What rates am I paying? This is the first state (of 6 I have lived in) that has had water police and restrictions. 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). At the moment, I am not interested in the debate. An improvement: Could you include a bar for Last year at this date? Waterfalls gushed at Hetch Hetchy after an atmospheric river event in October 2021. Folsom Lake is letting the water flow out. So my question is, How do we know if we are saving the water for later release (late summer) or are we releasing it to the ocean? I live close to Eastman Lake. There doesnt seem to be any site that shows the impact of each storm. Love easy to read and understand information. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, Yoohyun.Jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang, @yoohyun_jung. Python is used to extract the data from this page hourly and wrangle the data in to a clean format. function reloadiframes(){
I realize there we dont want to reservoirs overflowing, but why are we still below historical average? LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA. Lake Almanor isnt controlled by DWR for flood/supply. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. Great stuff. The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. I was thinking that it would be interesting to compare inflows and outflows. rejected by an appellate court and the California Supreme Court 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. Click here for the SFPUC's 2020State of the Regional Water System Report. the issue, including those under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, administration attempted to allocate funds to study removing the Its currently listed on this page as 29kaf full, but the usgs.gov page below says Hetch Hetchy is at 299.7kaf full. The SFPUC has also raised concerns over the fishery benefits of the States Plan. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D. I would turn this graph, 90 counterclockwise, and start the capacity along the bottom axis from left to right, with the biggest reservoirs on the left and the smaller ones on the right. San Francisco and the thousands of suburban . Here's what that means. Francisco Bay Area. The OShaughnessy Dam i s 300 feet tall only medium-sized by todays standards. Nate, thanks for the insight. Locked padlock The citys water system also includes a water bank at Don Pedro Reservoir along the Tuolumne River, which was full as of Feb. 1. The water treatment facilities are Tesla Ultraviolet Treatment Facility, disinfecting the Hetch Hetchy supply; Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant, treating the water from the Calaveras and San Antonio supply as well as the stored Hetch Hetchy supply; and Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, treating the water from the Crystal Springs and San Andreas supply. Different presidential administrations also have tried to address Part of the lake is on the California side, but it has zero California water impact beyond the immediate Tahoe residents. She is also an alumna of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting Investigative Fellowship and The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. draining the reservoir to court, arguing in 2015 that the }, false); Lake Tahoe really isnt part of California water, as the outflow goes to Nevada. Similar findings are described in theUC Davis studyRe-Assembling Hetch HetchyandUS Bureau of Reclamation study. Congress had to approve the project because it was Omar, Thanks! Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. System for more than 60 percent of their drinking water. 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. Curious why Shasta lake seems to be making big gains in water coming in and Trinity not so much? Upcountry and the Bay Area. The soaking was welcome in a drought-plagued state with a diminishing water supply. As of 5pm on 1/18, the data appears correct (~58k acre feet), but an hour ago it was reading off the chart (3X above what they are allowed to store right now). More about the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement can be found athttp://www.tuolumnerivermanagementplan.com. The new 68-mile (109 km) railroad wound its way up the narrow canyon of the Tuolumne River past sharp curves and up steep 4% grades. Next feature request: wire in aquifer level data! The name Hetch Hetchy is derived from a Sierra Miwok Locked padlock I know this might be difficult to display but Im very curious on the actual amounts of water consumed on a monthly basis and if this is somehow processed in a certain between what is agricultural and what is non-commercial etc? So on Jan 10 were at 82% of the average for Jan 10. Water is rapidly flowing into the state's reservoirs. Yes, and why is Twitchell Dam also not listed? What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? Check out my **new combined California reservoir and snowpack visualizer** to compare to historical values, as well asthe California precipitation tracker and California snowpack visualizer. Also, do they provide inflows and outflows for locations? The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that supplies San Francisco, seen here in February, is among those that have refilled after two months of storms. The information on Isabella has been fluctuating drastically (by a factor of 10!) sends student to hospital, Heres how much rain and snow is on the way this weekend, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). The data on water storage comes from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Data Exchange Center. All rights reserved. Francisco Public Utilities Commissions 26 wholesale customers The regional water system provides water to 2.4 million people in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. Thank you for the time and effort in creating the graphs. 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. The upcountry portion of the System begins with Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. "In contrast, the Shasta Lake drainage had only a couple of stations in excess of 10 inches whereas most received less. The extensive amount of storage, which is designed to benefit the Bay Area as droughts become more severe with climate change, has become a sticking point in a longstanding environmental battle over how much water the city should be taking from rivers. 2013, photo, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is hazy with smoke . The snowpack acts as a natural reservoir and slowly releases water.. GNSS2 - Level 2 Quality Survey Grade Global Navigation Satellite System. February 21, 2023 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water Resources Control Board'sSchedule for Consideration of a Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River. Thats just another very strong indication visually that its a big water year.. It didnt end the drought, but it was definitely really good," said Ritchie. Water data back to 1930 are available online. Should be fixed at some point. Crystal Springs Reservoir, along Highway 280 in San Mateo County, was 89 percent . As of Feb. 1, the systems total water storage was just over 1.3 million acre-feet, or about 92% of capacity. This dashboard provides a bit more detail on the state of each of the reservoirs while also showing an aggregate total. And early forecasts show the rest of the wet season is not likely to produce enough precipitation. Whats going on with the water level at Oroville? I notice Briones Reservoir is not on the list. David Rizzardo, hydrology section manager for the California Department of Water Resources, said there are a lot of factors that affect reservoir storage. Im curious why the percentage of capacity has stayed almost flat for the past 6 weeks or so and below historical average. Best of luck out there in California! Could you also do the same for the Colorado River reservoirs to see how they are fairing? BAWSCA Board of Directors Meeting, March 16, 2023, 6:30 PM. This almost happened with the Orville Dam in 2017. The water is delivered by a gravity-based system and aqueduct to reserved. currently, there is a lot more water coming in than going out. Rizzardo said there was a decent amount of flow into the reservoirs into January, even though weather-wise it was bone dry, a result of lower elevation snow at 4,000 to 6,000 feet making its way into the reservoirs. A small portion of the citys water comes from local reservoirs. Tracy Barbutes, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle, Heres where California reservoir levels stand after this weeks rains. Love this. SFGATE took a look at reservoir levels three days after the Oct. 24 storm and below we take another look, examining water level rises and storage increases at a broader range of reservoirs roughly a week after the atmospheric river event. A lock ( The SFPUC hoards water in dry years when they dont need to, said Peter Drekmeier, policy director at the conservation group Tuolumne River Trust. Its great seeing all the reservoirs in California at or near historical averages. 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. For perspective, water demand across the SFPUC's service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. Over the summer, Gov. According to the SFPUC, the upper reaches of the Tuolumne River have received about 36 inches of rain since the start of the water year in October, almost as much as what the area averages in a year. Im curious: Lk Almanor is the 8th largest reservoir in CA. globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px";
Its fluctuating between ~107% and ~20% from one hour to the next (reading 107.6 atm). With modest additional investments San Francisco will be able to maintain an uninterrupted supply of high quality Tuolumne River water. Monitoring location 11275500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. . McClintock bill proposes to improve public access at Hetch Hetchy. It was my first time using D3 and it took me a long time to get up to speed. That puts it at 84 percent of where it would usually be usually at this time of year. }, 150);
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. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. While the rainfall has been bad for many people, I am happy to see Californias reservoirs are benefiting slightly, Amen! Also a little nit. This was helpful to project seasonal trends & storm impacts. Due to its high-altitude location at 3,900 feet above sea level 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. The advocacy group Restore Hetch Hetchy took its case for Therefore flood control agencies take the more conservative route and order the release of water. Owned by the city of San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir I like the comparisons of last year, and the historical average. The state's second-largest reservoir, Lake Oroville in Butte County, saw especially dramatic gains with a 30.4-foot rise in the water level and a 182,625-acre-foot increase in the total amount of water, data posted Tuesday from the California Department of Water Resources showed. For each of the top 8 reservoirs the storage has increased by a total of 217 kaf, however). The main reason for the discrepancy, the department said, is that the focus of the atmospheric river was generally between the Golden Gate and Mount Lassen, meaning that the Feather River watershed received much more rainfall than the Shasta Lake drainage area. Occasionally the source water will shift to local reservoirs during routine maintenance to the conveyance system. Curt, Good point re the colder weather dropping more snow instead of rain at higher elevations this year. Wapama Falls (moderate) 5 mi (8 km) round-trip; 2 hours. In addition, San Francisco receives approximately one-tenth of its power from hydroelectricity generated by the gravity-driven flow from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Maybe bad data. Monitoring location 11277500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Although Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the most well-known, it stores less than 25% of the systems water. It has no natural inflow or out flow. 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. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. Previously, Kellie covered dining news and trends, visual arts, events and nightlife for the Arizona Republic, and freelanced for the former Contra Costa Times. Jeff, the average changes daily as well. The overall storage is said to have dropped by 57.4 to 56.4 (or 302 kaf). . She was previously an engagement reporter. How come the totals disagree with the cal map graphic? . }
For the first week of February, there was a slight increase for most reservoirs from January amounts. 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. 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. While it may seem that Decembers production could get us through the rest of the season, Rizzardo explains that in hydrology, you need consistent water shed to keep soils happy. He fears that without more precipitation this season, well enter our third very dry year. How Much Water is in California Reservoirs? Not only does it supply 85 percent of the water for 2.6 million people in San Francisco, controlled releases via the O'Shaughnessy Dam are helping preserve downstream specieseven in dry . Delivering approximately 260 million gallons of water per day, the regional system consists of over 280 miles of pipelines, over 60 miles of tunnels, 11 reservoirs, five pump stations and two water treatment plants.