Despite a dry water year, state officials do not feel that a drought declaration is necessary. During a recent meeting of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, Karla Nemeth provided a water update. Much of the presentation to the board centered on drought and what the outlook is for California water supplies moving forward. Even with a snowpack roughly half the average and below average water storage levels, officials believe that the state can manage the rest of 2021 without an emergency declaration.
“At the emergency services level the Governor has not declared a drought proclamation at this point in time. We don’t believe we need emergency powers at the state level to do the things that we need to be doing to manage through this year,” Nemeth noted. “If next year is very dry, we will absolutely be in an emergency drought proclamation and you will see some of the things that you saw in the last drought.”
Listen to the radio report below.
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