California’s Drought Is Over. Its Water Problems Aren’t.
It will take a lot more than this year’s deluge of rain to replenish the state’s depleted groundwater.
Still in trouble.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
California’s recent water windfall is a bit like somebody getting a big tax refund after years of dipping into their 401(k) to pay the bills. Any sense of wealth this sudden bounty engenders will be fleeting and perhaps dangerously misleading.
Weeks of heavy snow and rainstorms, poetically known as atmospheric rivers, have essentially ended the state’s three-year drought. Just 9% of California is still experiencing “severe drought” conditions, down from almost 33% a month ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some of the state’s formerly parched reservoirs are overflowing.