California will be able to increase the amount of water it delivers to 27 million residents after a series of recent storms that brought record rains and helped replenish drought-parched reservoirs.
(Bloomberg) — California will be able to increase the amount of water it delivers to 27 million residents after a series of recent storms that brought record rains and helped replenish drought-parched reservoirs.
The state will boost its deliveries to 29 public water agencies, the California Department of Water Resources said Thursday in a statement. That will mean supplying 30% of the requested water, up from an initial plan of 5% set on Dec. 1. The state’s two biggest reservoirs alone collected enough water to serve 5.6 million households from a series of atmospheric rivers that brought deluges from late December to early January.
The increase in projected deliveries comes as the state’s drought conditions appear to be abating thanks to recent wet weather. No parts of the state are now considered to be in extreme drought, compared with 43% three months ago, according to the US Drought Monitor. However, about 90% of the state currently remains in some level of drought, according to the monitor.
“We are not out of drought in California, but this certainly makes a significant dent,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, during a media briefing Thursday.
Officials said that two months remain in the state’s wet season, though it’s possible there could be a return to warm and dry conditions.
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