California has seen so much rain In recent weeks, agricultural fields have been flooded and normally dry streams and drainage ditches have become torrents of water rushing toward the ocean. However, most of the state stays in heavy dry season.
All that runoff in the middle of a drought begs the question: why can’t more rainwater be collected and stored for the long, dry spring and summer when it’s needed?
As a hydrogeologist At the University of California, Santa Cruz, I am interested in what can be done to collect runoff from such storms on a large scale. There are two main sources of large-scale water storage that could help stem the drought: keeping the water behind levees and channeling it into the ground.
Why isn’t California tracking more runoff now?
When California gets storms like that atmospheric flows that hit in December 2022 and January 2023 are likely to have water managers across the state shaking their heads and asking why they can’t keep more of this water. The reality is, it’s a complicated subject.
California has large dams and reservoirs which can store large amounts of water, but they are more likely to be in the mountains. And once they’re close to capacity, water needs to be released to be ready for the next storm. If there is no other reservoir downstream, a lot of water flows into the ocean.
In more densely populated areas, one of the reasons stormwater runoff is not automatically collected for large-scale use is initial runoff from roads often contaminated. Flooding can also cause this Septic tank overflows. The water would therefore have to be treated.
You could say, well, the water collected doesn’t have to be potable, we could just use it on golf courses. But then you would need a place to store the water and you would need a way to distribute it, with separate pipes and pumps, because you can’t put it in the same pipes as drinking water.
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