In fact, thanks to a little snowmelt, water levels were up for all reservoirs from December to January. Kellie has held many leadership roles for the Asian American Journalists Association, including most recently a board member for the San Francisco chapter. 2022 All Rights Reserved. Shasta, Oroville, Hetch Hetchy and many others were built by damming large rivers. and maybe another vertical axis to the right of that with reservoir capacity. hetch hetchy reservoir level percentage Rivers and Streams Streams draining into the Peninsula Watershed within the project area are relatively small, steep, and in a 2021-11-17. And more work is underway. It was my first time using D3 and it took me a long time to get up to speed. 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. 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. Hetch Hetchy | Hetch Hetchy Dam & Reservoir History | Yosemite.com Californias largest water agencies, in both the urban and agricultural sectors, have invested in ambitious groundwater banking programs inKern County. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Data and Tools Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander. 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. 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. Thank you! Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. The valley is reloadiframes(); Shasta is very large and could hold about 3.5 cubic kilometers of water at full (but not flood) capacity. Especially for small ones it is hard to identify them and click on them. You can find the charts below from the California Department of Water Resources website. 2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205 Water is such a fascinating topic and Id hate to have to be a water manager making a decision on how much to release to avoid reservoir flooding. Stay up-to-date with breaking news and upcoming events. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. Its just small enough that the name doesnt appear as the bar is too thin. Flood control agencies (not DWR) have the most say in regard to releases. John Muir and the A diverse mix of sources protects us from potential disruptions due to emergencies or natural disasters, provides resiliency during periods of drought, and helps us ensure a long-term, sustainable water supply as we address issues such as climate uncertainty, regulatory changes and population growth. 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. 1 covering up to $875 million and much of the rest coming from federal loans to water suppliers. Click here for the SFPUC's 2020State of the Regional Water System Report. There is something strange about the data over the last two days (Jan.17 to Jan. 19): So included in DWR #S. In Yosemite National Park, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir relies. 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. Shasta is the reservoir with the largest capacity and so it is the tallest row. Nice! Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. I see many of the local canals flowing with lots of water. Official websites use .gov **new combined California reservoir and snowpack visualizer**, made a bar graph showing the overall level of water in the major California reservoirs, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Data Exchange Center. 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. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite delivers water to 2.6 million Bay Area residents every day. Just trying to learn here Thanks so much! During late summer and early fall, it will be necessary to move stored supplies from Cherry or Don Pedro Reservoirs into the pipeline. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. Hetchy refers to a valley in the Sierra Nevada and a reservoir that FYI it looks like Isabella is reading incorrectly, likely because its well above 100%. How do I contact support? I previously made a bar graph showing the overall level of water in the major California reservoirs. San Francisco Should Pay Yosemite the Dam Rent - perc.org HETCH HETCHY RES A HETCH HETCHY CA. . Are they releasing water to relieve the pressure in anticipation of more water? CHERRY LK NR HETCH HETCHY CA Important Legacy real-time page Monitoring location 11277200 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 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. Steve Ritchie, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's assistant general manager for water, said the additional water amounted to roughly 11% of the reservoir's total capacity. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA - USGS Water Data for the Nation How Fast Are California Reservoirs Filling Up? I am grateful for all that you have done here to open our eyes to what is happening, what has happened, and even what might be on the horizon. Trailhead coordinates: 37.946905, -119.787376 (37 56 48.85N 119 47 14.55W) River. Is California's Drought Over? Here's What You Need To Know About Rain Interesting. Winter weather conditions may cause road closures. San Franciscos Hetch Hetchy water system is almost full for the first time in years. BAWSCA agencies also are implementing water conservation and water recycling projects to help preserve this precious resource for their communities, and are working to identify alternate sources of water supply. Thanks. At times, nearly 90% of the flow of the Tuolumne River is piped off by the SFPUC and other water agencies in the region. Add a button to convert the row heights to log scale. 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. . 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). Im curious: Lk Almanor is the 8th largest reservoir in CA. Ive been meaning to search for aquifer levels. I would like to make one small suggestion:. Hetch Hetchy has generated controversy since it was first This dashboard provides a bit more detail on the state of each of the reservoirs while also showing an aggregate total. dam and restoring the valley. She joined the Chronicle as a data reporter in 2021. This is also affected by most of these dams multi-purpose nature where they are near constantly releasing for power(like Shasta) or to make room for flood control capacity(like Folsom). Next feature request: wire in aquifer level data! maybe label the vertical axis with aggregate total or system total capacity. This is of particular interest as the self-imposed restrictions deadline is approaching and the federal government may have to step in and mandate restrictions across the 7 states, including California. administration attempted to allocate funds to study removing the Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. Located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, the reservoir saw a sizable 21.31-foot bump in its water level and gained 36,300 acre-feet, according to Tuesday data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Python is used to extract the data from this page hourly and wrangle the data in to a clean format. The middle portion of the watershed from New Don Pedro Reservoir to above Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is characterized by deep canyons and forested terrain. I havent spent much time looking at it but that data is on the CDEC website. I am new to the state. I wonder why it doesnt work for you. diversion of water? Restore Hetch Hetchy claimed the phrase had The reservoir is eight miles long and the largest single body of water in Yosemite. 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. . The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is involved in on-going negotiations with the State on a voluntary agreement for implementation of the Bay-Delta Plan, which calls for large increases in water releases on the tributaries to the San Joaquin River, a major tributary to the Bay-Delta. Great stuff. Therefore flood control agencies take the more conservative route and order the release of water. 2013, photo, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is hazy with smoke . This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. Saved to my favorites now. Maintaining this variety of sources is an important component of our near and long-term water supply management strategy. The group says the recent plethora of water shows that the city could do without Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, by using other storage facilities that have filled and pursuing new projects to capture the surplus. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D. While the rainfall has been bad for many people, I am happy to see Californias reservoirs are benefiting slightly, Amen! This site is a great tool, especially as we try to climb out of these drought years. This almost happened with the Orville Dam in 2017. Thanks for taking the time to do that. If you are on a computer, you can hover your cursor over a reservoir and the dashboard at the top will provide information about that individual reservoir. Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. Thats up more than 400,000 acre-feet since early December, before the unrelenting series of atmospheric river storms blew through California between Christmas and mid-January. A question: the Historical Avg*, is it the value of year-today or natural year? Fish and Wildlife Service that provides an immediate $4 million investment for habitat improvements for fisheries in the Tuolumne River. Its fluctuating between ~107% and ~20% from one hour to the next (reading 107.6 atm). This chart only shows reservoirs filled via natural flow/rainfall. The construction of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad took place from 1915 to 1918. California drought: Charts show where reservoir levels stand after a His recent work has examined the impacts of drought, threats to public lands and wildlife, and the nation's widening rural-urban divide. 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. Echoing the sentiments of famed naturalist John Muir, members say the glacially-carved Hetch Hetchy Valley that the reservoir sits in is comparable in grandeur to Yosemite Valley and should not be flooded. What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? Previously, Kellie covered dining news and trends, visual arts, events and nightlife for the Arizona Republic, and freelanced for the former Contra Costa Times. Although Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the most well-known, it stores less than 25% of the system's water. Sierra Club unsuccessfully fought the reservoirs establishment Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. How can I apply to SFPUC? Reservoir behind OShaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. currently, there is a lot more water coming in than going out. Within San Francisco, we manage water distribution in the City. The Bay Area portion of the System includes water collection, treatment, and transmission facilities from the Alameda East Portal to the wholesale service area and terminal reservoirs in San Francisco. 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. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . Similar findings are described in theUC Davis studyRe-Assembling Hetch HetchyandUS Bureau of Reclamation study. } And early forecasts show the rest of the wet season is not likely to produce enough precipitation. Meant this comment for the integrated snowpack and reservoir view. Over the summer, Gov. Since June 2011, the Water Enterprise has operated the Citys Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS, formerly known as the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS)), an independent, high-pressure water supply system for fire suppression. If you click on the list button in the top right of the dashboard, it will show a list of the reservoirs (in order of size from largest to smallest) and you can check which ones you would like to display. globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px"; But the growing water reserves dont please everyone. Why is Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio not listed? Prior to The Chronicle, she worked as a data journalist for Honolulu Civil Beat, a watchdog news organization covering the Hawaiian islands. She was born and raised in the Bay Area and got her start in news at the Daily Californian newspaper at UC Berkeley where she majored in English literature. With modest additional investments San Francisco will be able to maintain an uninterrupted supply of high quality Tuolumne River water. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NAVD 1988, LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929, and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. This is an excellent tool you have put together. Your email address will not be published. Ive looked at reservoir sights for years. the map graph doesnt include berryessa. Bay Area: Do You Know Where Your Water Comes From? SFPUC said as of this week, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir is at 92 percent capacity. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre-feet, had the smallest increase, from 29% in December to 30% in January. The main goal of this visualization is to provide a quick overview of the status of the main reservoirs in the state and how they compare to historical levels. A truly excellent project. Historical average is near unattainable these days. HETCH HETCHY RES A HETCH HETCHY CA - USGS Water Data for the Nation The overall storage is said to have dropped by 57.4 to 56.4 (or 302 kaf). Our drinking water comes from a variety of protected sources carefully managed by the SFPUC. Hetch Hetchy is Monitoring location 11275500. An official website of the United States government. Diamond Valley Lake is a man-made storage reservoir for storing imported water only. The commission plans to decide Nov. 23 whether to formally ask customers to conserve water. Greetings from Mount Laurel New Jersey. Other California water agencies have done far more to reduce the impact of their system on Mono Lake, the Trinity and San Joaquin Rivers, and the Bay-Delta. Hetch Hetchy System - BAWSCA Id love to see how much water is being / has been released from these reservoirs. Last week, I paid a visit to Hetch Hetchy. What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? over the past few days. I like the comparisons of last year, and the historical average. San Franciscos water system, which includes Hetchy Hetchy, is expected to fill this winter for the first time since 2019. Great visualization Chris! For each of the top 8 reservoirs the storage has increased by a total of 217 kaf, however). The SFPUC has voiced concerns with the Plan, as it would dramatically reduce the agencys water supply, leaving it subject to significant rationing in droughts and more extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change. The BAWSCA agencies are therefore key stakeholders in ensuring the system serves as a reliable source of high quality water. You dont see runoff right away, the snow is still up there, frozen, doing what we want it to do, he said. Check out my **new combined California reservoir and snowpack visualizer** to compare to historical values, as well asthe California precipitation tracker and California snowpack visualizer. After record snowfall in December was followed by a dry January, there are renewed concerns of drought. P.S. sends student to hospital, Heres how much rain and snow is on the way this weekend, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). The surplus has renewed concerns about San Francisco stockpiling water at the expense of rivers and the fish and wildlife that live there. 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. For the first week of February, there was a slight increase for most reservoirs from January amounts. The cities, water districts and private utilities represented by the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA) rely upon the Hetch Hetchy system for water to protect the health, safety and economic well being of 1.8 million citizens, businesses and community organizations. So many facets beautifully chartered. 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. According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir can store as much as 117 billion gallons for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties.