How high's the water, Californians?

[ATtiny85]

Hopefully the flooding hasn’t been too bad in your area. Talked to a couple buddies up north of Sac and they both commented “we’ll take all that comes, and hopefully the snow keeps falling up high. Keep bringing it.” Easy for them to say. Look pretty rough in quite a few areas south of Sac.

I regularly check on the levels of Oroville and Shasta reservoirs. Started being interested after the issue they had with the Oroville spillway a few years ago.

Reading a couple comments off some random story had me thinking. What has been done in the last fifty years to improve water storage capacity? I can’t think of any major new reservoirs up north that have been created. I did read that a couple are trying to be better about staying full when possible. Advances in weather forecasting has/should make it possible to not knee jerk react and dump more water than necessary.

Hopefully some amount the water falling can get in places where it replenishes some areas.

(hopefully a few folks get the topic title)

[GilesMM]

Mostly receded.  Luckily the power has been restored.

[oneday]

Luckily in my area, the rain has been on and off. So every other day or so, there's a chance for it to drain off. So even if the gutters are full/overflowing during the storms, they are empty again soon.

In our nearest park, we have several additional "pop up" duck ponds! Those have not been draining, so the soil there is saturated.

[Sandi_k]

Lots of saturation, standing water in fields and on roads, etc.

And accounts of snowpack in the Sierras are good - it's apparently got a higher water content than last year, so I am hoping we don't have instant melt and runoff.

[NorCal]

It’s good to see Northern California will most certainly have a good water year.

It’s quite the contrast to the dire situation we’re still seeing on the Colorado river. Even with a normalish snowpack in the Rockies so far, the cuts we’ll see over the coming months will be apocalyptic for some communities.  And I don’t consider that hyperbolic 

The West largely tapped out buildable locations for water storage decades ago. In fact, there was just a bipartisanish agreement to dismantle a dam on the Klamath river. There’s a fascinating history there if you care to read up on it. But that doesn’t mean nothing has been built. A lot of money has gone to things like cement lined canals that lose less water into the ground. While less visible than big dams, these projects can actually “create” more water than most storage projects.

[ATtiny85]

Lots of saturation, standing water in fields and on roads, etc.

And accounts of snowpack in the Sierras are good - it's apparently got a higher water content than last year, so I am hoping we don't have instant melt and runoff.

Yeah, there have been a couple cases in recent years where a damn rainstorm hits high elevations and screws up a decent pack.

I haven’t read enough to fully understand the mechanics of aquifer replenishment. My simple minds thinks “open up all the wells and channel this wonderful rainwater into the holes from whence it came.” But lots of snowpack and full reservoirs are certainly a great step in drought relief. Might only be for a single year…

Eta @NorCal thanks for the info, I’ll look into that.

[GilesMM]

I haven’t read enough to fully understand the mechanics of aquifer replenishment. My simple minds thinks “open up all the wells and channel this wonderful rainwater into the holes from whence it came.” ...

That would be a great way to get a lot of bacteria into your well.  Strictly not recommended.  Aquifers recharge on their own (or not) via long term methods.

[Radagast]

I haven’t read enough to fully understand the mechanics of aquifer replenishment. My simple minds thinks “open up all the wells and channel this wonderful rainwater into the holes from whence it came.” ...

That would be a great way to get a lot of bacteria into your well.  Strictly not recommended.  Aquifers recharge on their own (or not) via long term methods.

It's pretty common to recharge an aquifer during the wet season through induction wells or rapid infiltration basins. Typically the induction wells would be separate from the production wells for the reason you say. Careful tracking of water rights is of course needed when doing this. It is thought of as underground storage and can potentially be quite long term (to the extent any municipalities or irrigation districts plan or get funding for the long term).

[ATtiny85]

I haven’t read enough to fully understand the mechanics of aquifer replenishment. My simple minds thinks “open up all the wells and channel this wonderful rainwater into the holes from whence it came.” ...

That would be a great way to get a lot of bacteria into your well.  Strictly not recommended.  Aquifers recharge on their own (or not) via long term methods.

It's pretty common to recharge an aquifer during the wet season through induction wells or rapid infiltration basins. Typically the induction wells would be separate from the production wells for the reason you say. Careful tracking of water rights is of course needed when doing this. It is thought of as underground storage and can potentially be quite long term (to the extent any municipalities or irrigation districts plan or get funding for the long term).

Do you know how prevalent this technique is? Or how effective? An awful lot of water has fallen in some seriously dry regions out there. I fear a bunch is already back out in the Pacific, though naturally a bunch is expected to do that. It’s just so dry…

[Radagast]

I haven’t read enough to fully understand the mechanics of aquifer replenishment. My simple minds thinks “open up all the wells and channel this wonderful rainwater into the holes from whence it came.” ...

That would be a great way to get a lot of bacteria into your well.  Strictly not recommended.  Aquifers recharge on their own (or not) via long term methods.

It's pretty common to recharge an aquifer during the wet season through induction wells or rapid infiltration basins. Typically the induction wells would be separate from the production wells for the reason you say. Careful tracking of water rights is of course needed when doing this. It is thought of as underground storage and can potentially be quite long term (to the extent any municipalities or irrigation districts plan or get funding for the long term).

Do you know how prevalent this technique is? Or how effective? An awful lot of water has fallen in some seriously dry regions out there. I fear a bunch is already back out in the Pacific, though naturally a bunch is expected to do that. It’s just so dry…

I don’t have a good idea about it’s prevalence. I only know about cases I encounter anecdotally. A few links:
https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2023/Jan-23/State-Agencies-Fast-track-Groundwater-Recharge-Pilot-Project
https://tmwa.com/your-water/topics-facts/recharge-program/
For example I knew about the Merced project for a couple years by coincidence, but until now I didn’t know it was regarded as pioneering.

A disadvantage of the method is that it has a fixed capacity. If your well can inject 10,000 gpm that is what it can inject in the wettest or driest year and same for RIBs. Natural soaking in increases rapidly with larger surface area during a wet year.

It works though, you just need to get the water deep enough to get past evaporation and track it carefully.

Another list of a few examples in the middle of
https://mavensnotebook.com/2018/08/29/managed-aquifer-recharge-in-california/?doing_wp_cron=1673949283.0750370025634765625000

[dang1]

west contra costa, here. flatland, good drainage neighborhood been very lucky - so far, no: power outage, significant tree collapses, flooding, sinkholes, landslides. Been staying home, don't want to add to traffic

[Dicey]

Overall, it's fucking glorious, except if you live somewhere like Felton...er...anywhere in and around Santa Cruz.

When the water table drops enough, drywall cracks happen. When the ground swells as the water table rises, more cracks appear. But the roof doesn,t leak, and the drainage works, so it's all good.

We did lose our 75 gallon water heater, but it was about 15 years old (no date on it anywhere, which is atypical) and at the end of its life expectancy. Not fun to deal with in the rain, but nothing compared to what others are experiencing.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Our garage flooded on Saturday, as a drain we didn't even know existed was blocked. My husband was skiing with the kids, so I had the good time of sorting it out. Once I found the drain (it had easily been 10+ years - longer than we've owned the house) since it had been cleared, things sorted themselves out. Our pool area also flooded on our back patio, which is not great news for the pool (chlorinated water made its way elsewhere, and dirt/debris got into the pool). I was able to scoop much of the water out by bucket to the sump pump run off area.

The snow at Tahoe is wild, but also dangerous & not ideal ski conditions. Obviously, that's not anything to worry about & we need the rain/snow more than we need a good ski season. But, people really associate a ton of snow with perfect skiing. No, it's dangerous to drive, the ski resorts are struggling to move all of that snow & keep operations running, & they also have a ton of avalanche control to do. Hopefully later in the season will be fantastic. Less active snowfall to manage, but plenty of base.