Shasta is very large and could hold about 3.5 cubic kilometers of water at full (but not flood) capacity. "It is unknown how much area of the Feather River and Shasta Lake drainages are impacted by hydrophobic soils.". It is also the amount of water in a cube that is 352 feet per side (about the length of a football field). There doesnt seem to be any site that shows the impact of each storm. I dont think its currently above the historical average, not below 1 year ago. 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. Reservoir levels rising. There are no alerts at this time. Thanks for providing it for public information. The proportion of blue to brown will show how full it is, while the red line shows the historical level that reservoir is typically at for this date of the water year. 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. administration attempted to allocate funds to study removing the
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. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. Hoping they start building more reservoirs soon. thanks. More about the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement can be found athttp://www.tuolumnerivermanagementplan.com. not passed until 1928 five years after the dam was built. I dont know if weve seen anything like this in October before.". Impounded by OShaughnessy 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. 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). It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. California snowpack hits highest level this century for March. The blue line indicates the reservoirs water level one year ago today. February 21, 2023 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water Resources Control Board'sSchedule for Consideration of a Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River. Thanks for the prompt reply! The worst possible scenario is it just remains completely dry. It allowed the water over the spillway to move too fast creating a vacuum between the water and the concrete that pulled the concrete sections out of the spillway. 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. . Excellent graphic! I would like to make one small suggestion:. All Rights Reserved. resizeframe();
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. The construction of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad took place from 1915 to 1918. One gauge in the area has measured 6.12 inches since Oct. 1, which is 899% of normal. But they'll cost you, Fight at high school basketball game in S.F. This chart only shows reservoirs filled via natural flow/rainfall. Restore Hetch Hetchy supports a power replacement plan that is truly renewable, and will not increase emissions of any pollutants or carbon that causes global warming. Wonderful site. and maybe another vertical axis to the right of that with reservoir capacity. All rights Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite was 69 percent full on Tuesday, 150 percent of normal for this time of year. Id only be interested in the totals from Oroville and Shasta. 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. The Water Education Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, And early forecasts show the rest of the wet season is not likely to produce enough precipitation. In 2016, a Tuolumne County Superior Court judge dismissed the The water is delivered by a gravity-based system and aqueduct to California reservoir levels: . 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. Last week, I paid a visit to Hetch Hetchy. What rates am I paying? Reservoir Report 4,670 ft -0.02% today 100% of normal Normal Water lake or reservoir water surface elevation above ngvd 1929, ft at Cherry Lk Nr Hetch Hetchy Ca is currently 4,670 ft, approximately 100% of normal. Water is rapidly flowing into the state's reservoirs. Its currently listed on this page as 29kaf full, but the usgs.gov page below says Hetch Hetchy is at 299.7kaf full. 1 covering up to $875 million and much of the rest coming from federal loans to water suppliers. 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. }, 150);
This is my first year watching the levels, so maybe Im missing something. A small portion of the citys water comes from local reservoirs. This site is a great tool, especially as we try to climb out of these drought years. Python is used to extract the data from this page hourly and wrangle the data in to a clean format. Thats a very poor design. Then it has the appearance of something filling up, while still providing all the detail. the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state. globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px";
How Fast Are California Reservoirs Filling Up? It used to be full (and beyond). The Department of Water Resources, which manages the state's water supply, said in a statement that there are several possible reasons for the difference in inflow amounts between the two reservoirs. In addition, San Francisco receives approximately one-tenth of its power from hydroelectricity generated by the gravity-driven flow from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. 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%. Great stuff. since it required flooding a Article X, Section 2 that requires diversions for all water It can take several days to see the full impact on reservoirs as water continues to run through watersheds and into streams in the days after a storm. The cities of Burlingame, Hayward, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Mateo, along with the Alameda County Water District, were among Bay Area communities whose support was influential in persuading Congress to pass the controversial Act, and President Woodrow Wilson to sign it. Several cities and water agencies that are now part of BAWSCA urged Congress to pass the Raker Act in 1913, the law that allowed federal lands in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, to be used to build the water system. 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. Monitoring location 11277500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. As of Feb. 1, the systems total water storage was just over 1.3 million acre-feet, or about 92% of capacity. Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. 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. I live in the central valley. Monitoring location 11275500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. The amount stored is increasing, just not by a lot. Sometimes this is well done sometimes it is poorly done. Near the town of La Grange, the river exits the Sierra Nevada foothills and flows through a gently sloping alluvial valley that is incised into Pleistocene alluvial fans. Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. 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. 2022 All Rights Reserved. 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. What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? Data have been checked by the reporting agency. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. In 2007, the Bush Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander. One of the big challenges in water management is controling the release. in 2018. Sierra Club unsuccessfully fought the reservoirs establishment Great visualization Chris! Restoring Hetch Hetchy will require some changes in how San Francisco moves and stores water. 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. For detailed analysis of how San Franciscos water system will operate without Hetch Hetchy reservoir, see the Environmental Defense Funds studiesParadise RegainedandCherry Intertie Alternative. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. over the past few days. Local reservoir inflows have negative daily flow rates set to zero. It carried workers and materials for the dam, as well as tourists, postage and other amenities. Delivery rates are 7-day average values. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Quite an eye opener. Californias largest water agencies, in both the urban and agricultural sectors, have invested in ambitious groundwater banking programs inKern County. Also a little nit. Fish and Wildlife Service that provides an immediate $4 million investment for habitat improvements for fisheries in the Tuolumne River. Exclusive: Stunning photos show Yosemite National Park under 15 feet of Warriors treating Andrew Wiggins with understandable patience, but his California snowpack hits highest level this century for March, could Map shows which parts of California exceeded entire years worth of rain, Map shows stunning improvement in California drought, Last chance to see: Bay Bridge lights turn off on Sunday. Due to its high-altitude location at 3,900 feet above sea level
Additionally, the bounty helps the more than two dozen communities in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that get their water from the city. 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 1913 Raker Act authorized the unprecedented dam inside the park and also set the fee that the city pays to rent the entire valley in which the dam sits: $30,000 per year. 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. a broad meaning that had been previously applied in an Reservoir behind OShaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. Thats a great suggestion and one that would be particularly helpful! Horoscope for Friday, 3/03/23 by Christopher Renstrom, No seriously, dont drive up to Tahoe this weekend, Wife of Jeffrey Vandergrift issues somber update, Snowboarder dies at Tahoe ski resort following historic blizzard, Scream publicity stunt floods Bay Area dispatch with 911 calls, The best fried chicken is at a San Francisco strip club, Rain reenters Bay Area forecast: Have an umbrella near you, The Warriors broke Russell Westbrook, just like old times, Mochi muffin bakery closes SF cafe after just 4 months, Arrest in killing of woman seen running through Tahoe campground, Oakland ransomware attackers leak 'confidential' data, California Department of Water Resources website, 14 things you need in your car before you drive to Tahoe. globe = document.getElementById('mekko');
The captured water is piped 150 miles to the Bay Area. 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. The adopted Plan addresses water quality issues affecting the ecosystem and fisheries of the Bay-Delta system. Why is it not listed? I recently joined the team with Restore Hetch Hetchy as Engagement & Development Director. Trailhead address: Evergreen Road (Hetch Hetchy Road), Yosemite National Park, CA 95321. Hetch Hetchy is only one of nine reservoirs in the San Francisco Public Utility Commissions water system. No it is correct. Much of the recent inflow was to Hetch Hetchy, which can hold. Jeff, the average changes daily as well. Central Valleyfarms have installed enough drip irrigationstrips to reach the moon and back, an improvement that also enables more efficient application of fertilizer and pesticides. 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. Great resource! a minimum, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities California boosts water deliveries to highest level in years, thanks to storms, California reservoir levels: Charts show water supply across the state, Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area. If a reservoir gets filled to 100% and more, the dam will break and many cities will get flooded, so the operators are careful. They are draining it currently so that it can serve as that overflow if needed given how much rain is coming down and expected over the next week. I think the problem is with the CDEC database (as the LakesOnline website also has had incorrectly high information). Flood control agencies (not DWR) have the most say in regard to releases. 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. Remember, much of the state is still in a drought and so the prudence is warranted.. That said, most of its outflow makes its way down Feather River (via Rock Creek Reservoir) and ultimately into Orville. 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. 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 also added the ability to select specific reservoirs to display on the graph and share a custom URL which will point those selected reservoirs (click on list button on top right of dashboard). . Just trying to learn here Thanks so much! Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. After the reservoirs
DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. This website along with another shows that Eastmans level is still rising even though we have not had rain in more than a week. looks like the CDEC website is the cause of the issue unless it actually dropped 90% in a day: Shasta, Oroville, Hetch Hetchy and many others were built by damming large rivers. For some strange unknown reason, they are not allowing the lake to fill up. So included in DWR #S. Winter weather conditions may cause road closures. Id love to see how much water is being / has been released from these reservoirs. generates electricity for the city). Water data back to 1930 are available online. A dry January with little rainfall across much of Northern California actually didnt hurt the states water storage levels, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources. Didnt realize how bad things were there. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the With modest additional investments San Francisco will be able to maintain an uninterrupted supply of high quality Tuolumne River water. The Bay Area transmission system also includes Irvington Tunnel 1 and Tunnel 2, the Bay Tunnel, and the Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel. 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. 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. Upcountry and the Bay Area. 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. Although Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the most well-known, it stores less than 25% of the systems water. 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 . https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=HTH Take CA Highway 120 from the park toward Groveland. 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. In 2021, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts launched a proactive pilot program with the U.S. 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. Our drinking water comes from a variety of protected sources carefully managed by the SFPUC. supplies water to the San Francisco Bay Area. "It was a very healthy shot in the arm. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. Ive been meaning to search for aquifer levels. drained by the Tuolumne Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. The water transmission system in the Bay Area and Peninsula includes the Bay Division, San Andreas, Sunset Supply, and Crystal Springs pipelines. Great Job on this site! San Francisco operates three medium-sized hydro-electric power plants in the Tuolumne River watershed Kirkwood, Moccasin, and Holm. I was thinking that it would be interesting to compare inflows and outflows. The regional water system provides water to 2.4 million people in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre-feet, had the smallest increase, from 29% in December to 30% in January. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. function reloadiframes(){
Top ways to experience Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and nearby attractions Yosemite: Audio Driving Tour 1 Full-day Tours from $9.99 per group (up to 8) Private Yosemite Explorer Package | 3 Days of Adventure 3 Private and Luxury from $750.00 per adult (price varies by group size) Private Family Photo Day in Yosemite 78 Recommended Full-day Tours from 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.