By a large measure, damming and flooding Hetch Hetchy is the most significant damage ever allowed in any of our national parks. The reservoir is now projected to cost $4.4 billion, with Prop. Previously, Kellie covered dining news and trends, visual arts, events and nightlife for the Arizona Republic, and freelanced for the former Contra Costa Times. James Q. Martin / Restore Hetch Hetchy Show More Show Less 4 of 7 An improvement: Could you include a bar for Last year at this date? reloadiframes(); UPDATE: Here's where California reservoir levels stand after this week's rains. Data and Tools DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. Maybe bad data. The trail takes you to the base of Wapama Falls, passing two smaller waterfalls (during spring) on the way. currently, there is a lot more water coming in than going out. Thats a great suggestion and one that would be particularly helpful! 501(c)3 organization, federal tax ID #942419885. 9 of 12 10 of 12 Hetch Hetchy Reservoir with Wapama Falls near Groveland, Calif. on Wednesday March 12, 2014, is currently at fifty percent of capacity. do so. No it is correct. The trail includes spectacular views of Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. Omar, Thanks! 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. Thanks. It looks like the red and blue lines are backwards on Folsom. For each of the top 8 reservoirs the storage has increased by a total of 217 kaf, however). Best of luck out there in California! The source water from SFPUC is typically from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 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. Remaining Capacity text in the legend should be brown? Could you also do the same for the Colorado River reservoirs to see how they are fairing? These sources are diverse in both the origin of the supply snowmelt, rainfall and recharge of groundwater and their location within our system. Twenty of San Park visitors walk across OShaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park on Sept. 1. John Muir and the At this facility, which is shared with other water agencies, the city can stash water for credits against future draws on the river. 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. Similar findings are described in theUC Davis studyRe-Assembling Hetch HetchyandUS Bureau of Reclamation study. Arg. What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? My guess would be that the recent systems have been cold and so they are predominantly dropping snow on the watershed. Monitoring location 11277500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Trailhead coordinates: 37.946905, -119.787376 (37 56 48.85N 119 47 14.55W) Is it because the laws have changed on how much each reservoir can hold or is it in anticipation of significantly more rain? The gain came after weather gauges in the area recorded more than 5 inches from one storm. Just trying to learn here Thanks so much! It didnt end the drought, but it was definitely really good," said Ritchie. supplies water to the San Francisco 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. Restore Hetch Hetchy intends to undo this Great American mistake, and return the valley to Yosemite National Park and all people. Thank you for a beautiful job. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area transmission system also includes Irvington Tunnel 1 and Tunnel 2, the Bay Tunnel, and the Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel. The question was, what constitutes unreasonable method of It is on the graph. The SFPUC has also raised concerns over the fishery benefits of the States Plan. Diamond Valley Lake is a man-made storage reservoir for storing imported water only. Ive looked at reservoir sights for years. Monitoring location 11275500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. All rights A separate vote would have been A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the the issue, including those under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kellie has held many leadership roles for the Asian American Journalists Association, including most recently a board member for the San Francisco chapter. 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. 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. The Bay Area's main reservoir is up 21 feet. 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. Heres where California reservoir levels stand after this weeks rains. finding an alternative water and power source (Hetchy Hetchy also Much of the recent inflow was to Hetch Hetchy, which can hold about 360,000 acre-feet of water and was 83% full at the start of the month. 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. I would like to make one small suggestion:. Could you also show each reservoirs level as a function of time? The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that supplies San Francisco, seen here in February, is among those that have refilled after two months of storms. This file photo shows Shasta Lake. While it may seem that Decembers production could get us through the rest of the season, Rizzardo explains that in hydrology, you need consistent water shed to keep soils happy. He fears that without more precipitation this season, well enter our third very dry year. This is a great and very thoughtfully designed web site! Our reservoirs were alarmingly low. This site is a great tool, especially as we try to climb out of these drought years. P.S. It carried workers and materials for the dam, as well as tourists, postage and other amenities. A lock ( This hike follows the shoreline of the reservoir with moderate up and downhill hiking. The overall storage is said to have dropped by 57.4 to 56.4 (or 302 kaf). Good info to know. For perspective, water demand across the SFPUCs service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. Copyright 2023Water Education Foundation. We provide water directly to customers in San Francisco and wholesale through 26 Water agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties. YTD values are from January 1 . This is my first year watching the levels, so maybe Im missing something. . So included in DWR #S. "It is unknown how much area of the Feather River and Shasta Lake drainages are impacted by hydrophobic soils.". Ill pass it along to friends. by the Raker Act. Water data back to 1956 are available online. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. Maybe just acre/ft with ^ or down arrow. This November, a group of environmental advocates will put forth a ballot measure that would require the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to develop a plan to drain Hetch Hetchy. Lock Most local reservoir inflow timeseries are too short to calculate long-term values. I second that request. I am new to the state. Curt, Good point re the colder weather dropping more snow instead of rain at higher elevations this year. Quite an eye opener. Occasionally the source water will shift to local reservoirs during routine maintenance to the conveyance system. For the higher elevations, more of their water comes directly from snowmelt. 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. Navigation and Navigable Waters 33.208.82 Hetch Hetchy, Cherry Valley, and Don Pedro Dams and Reservoirs. Only modest new supplies would be required in the driest years. Its supposed to be brown. Department of Water Resources is just another in a long line of completely mismanaged California entities. Although Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the most well-known, it stores less than 25% of the systems water. Ive been meaning to search for aquifer levels. Long-term values for reservoir inflows use maximum number of complete water years in record. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D. Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. This is the best one out there. the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state. A truly excellent project. Here's what that means. Francisco Bay Area. Thanks for the link. She was previously an engagement reporter. As of Feb. 1, the systems total water storage was just over 1.3 million acre-feet, or about 92% of capacity. 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. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA. We own and operate the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System which serves 2.7 million customers. The new 68-mile (109 km) railroad wound its way up the narrow canyon of the Tuolumne River past sharp curves and up steep 4% grades. I love this this site too. It takes a fair amount of work to make graphs compared to other more plug-and-play libraries but its very customizable, which is a plus. Great Job on this site! Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite was 69 percent full on Tuesday, 150 percent of normal for this time of year. Our drinking water comes from a variety of protected sources carefully managed by the SFPUC. over the past few days. To reach Hetch Hetchy, you have to exit Yosemite National Park and re-enter it. Generation at the Kirkwood power plant would depend on the natural flow of the Tuolumne River, and would be significantly diminished during late summer and fall. Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. California drought: Charts show where reservoir levels stand after a dry January, Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area. You can find the charts below from the California Department of Water Resources website. March 12 - The Perks of California Native Wildflowers, March 28 - Rainwater Harvesting and Rain Gardens, April 01 - Lawn Conversion to Native and Drought-Tolerant Plants. "It was a very healthy shot in the arm. 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. This dashboard provides a bit more detail on the state of each of the reservoirs while also showing an aggregate total. ", The difference in soil type in the two watersheds was likely another factor. One gauge in the area has measured 6.12 inches since Oct. 1, which is 899% of normal. If a reservoir gets filled to 100% and more, the dam will break and many cities will get flooded, so the operators are careful. Hi, I started by using this page (https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES) to determine which reservoirs to include and for some reason Almanor isnt on the list. In 2021, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts launched a proactive pilot program with the U.S. I see many of the local canals flowing with lots of water. If you look at the inflow data on the major reservoirs, its pretty flat. 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. Absolutely zero reason to be releasing this much water from these reservoirs. That said, most of its outflow makes its way down Feather River (via Rock Creek Reservoir) and ultimately into Orville. Saved to my favorites now. Construction of the regional water system proceeded over the following 20 years, with water first delivered in 1934. System for more than 60 percent of their drinking water. Great stuff. Thats enough to supply the citys service area for perhaps seven years. Monitoring location 11275500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Hetch Hetchy has generated controversy since it was first function resizeframe(){ For perspective, water demand across the SFPUC's service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. 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. Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, the ground is saturated and near-record rainfall has occurred in recent days. Should be fixed at some point. Folsom Lake is letting the water flow out. As the system aged, especially in an era of heightened safety awareness following the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 and drought in the 1990s, it became evident that the system required a complete overhaul. the city wastes water, so it was a moot issue. The snowpack there, which will eventually melt and flow into reservoirs, is already bigger than the average peak snowpack, which typically comes around April 1. Find out more about the system at http://www.sfwater.org, BAWSCA Board Policy Committee Meeting, April 12, 2023 1:30pm. 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. Hetchy Reservoir can store as much as 117 billion gallons for the Even with the latest precipitation, Folsoms values was unchanged. Im curious why the percentage of capacity has stayed almost flat for the past 6 weeks or so and below historical average. Each row represents one reservoir, with bars showing how much of the reservoir is filled (blue) and unfilled (brown). In fact, thanks to a little snowmelt, water levels were up for all reservoirs from December to January. After record snowfall in December was followed by a dry January, there are renewed concerns of drought. San Francisco's water-bank in Don Pedro Reservoir, downstream on the Tuolumne River, holds twice as much water as Hetch Hetchy. There is something strange about the data over the last two days (Jan.17 to Jan. 19): But the growing water reserves dont please everyone. . document.getElementById('globes').contentWindow.location.reload(); Thank you for the time and effort in creating the graphs. San Francisco and the thousands of suburban . For the class we based all our designs on the USACE spillway design manual. As it is, at first glance, it looks like shasta is at the top because its 28000 instead of 4552. very nice product overall. Kellie Hwang is the newsletter editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. February 21, 2023 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water Resources Control Board'sSchedule for Consideration of a Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. word for a type of wild grass. thanks. Article X, Section 2 that requires diversions for all water //this function is called from the javascript from within the iframe after the contents of iframe are loaded (and after an additional 150ms delay) May 24, 2022 - BAWSCA Statement About the Adoption of a Systemwide Water Use Reduction of 11%. The regional water system provides water to 2.4 million people in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. Wapama Falls (moderate) 5 mi (8 km) round-trip; 2 hours. Isabella is filling quite slowly in order to test out the new $500 million spillway. Located in the northwest portion of Yosemite National Park, Hetch For example, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park provides 85 percent of San Francisco's total water needs. This chart only shows reservoirs filled via natural flow/rainfall. globe = document.getElementById('mekko'); dam and restoring the valley. There are many very small reservoirs (relative to Shasta) so the bars will be very thin to the point where they are barely a sliver or may not even show up. Awesome work!! Lake Oroville. Visualization was done in javascript and specifically the D3.js visualization library. Much of the water passing through Holm would be diverted into the Mountain Tunnel and be used to generate power a second time at the Moccasin powerhouse. 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). For example, the average storage level for Feb. 7 is usually 65% of capacity for Trinity Dam, but currently its at 31%. Great graphs and very useful. It certainly looks dry at least until the last week in February, he said. Fish and Wildlife Service that provides an immediate $4 million investment for habitat improvements for fisheries in the Tuolumne River. It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. Wife of missing Bay Area radio host says Jeffrey Vandergrift will not Sen. Dianne Feinstein is hospitalized in San Francisco with shingles, California extends deadline to file 2022 income taxes to match IRS decision, Going to Tahoe this weekend? Wife of missing Bay Area radio host says Jeffrey Vandergrift will not Sen. Dianne Feinstein is hospitalized in San Francisco with shingles, California extends deadline to file 2022 income taxes to match IRS decision, Here's where California reservoir levels stand after this week's rains, Going to Tahoe this weekend? Why isnt Lake Sonoma included? Thinking more about it. This is wonderful information. The blue line indicates the reservoirs water level one year ago today. A different story is unfolding at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park, where water is being released to conserve and restore wildlife. 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. "In contrast, the Shasta Lake drainage had only a couple of stations in excess of 10 inches whereas most received less. Therefore flood control agencies take the more conservative route and order the release of water. Id only be interested in the totals from Oroville and Shasta. I know this might be difficult to display but Im very curious on the actual amounts of water consumed on a monthly basis and if this is somehow processed in a certain between what is agricultural and what is non-commercial etc? Hetch Hetchy is one of nine reserviors in a water system that serves San Francisco and other Bay Area communities. One acre-foot is the equivalent of one acre of land covered in one foot of water. BAWSCA agencies advocated for the capital improvement program that was adopted by the SFPUC in 2002, and are actively monitoring its implementation. Theyve also seen drought surcharges on their water bills. 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. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. BAWSCA Board of Directors Meeting, March 16, 2023, 6:30 PM. Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. 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. For most of the year it will still be possible to divert the flow of the Tuolumne River into the pipeline just downstream of the National Park boundary. 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. maybe label the vertical axis with aggregate total or system total capacity. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Prior to The Chronicle, she worked as a data journalist for Honolulu Civil Beat, a watchdog news organization covering the Hawaiian islands. The Mokolumne River, which originates in the high Sierra, provides more than 90 percent of the East Bay's water and the Owens Valley in the eastern Sierra serves as a key source of water for Los Angeles. Crystal Springs Reservoir, along Highway 280 in San Mateo County, was 89 percent . Francisco Public Utilities Commissions 26 wholesale customers Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. 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. They are releasing water into the canals. I have wanted to do exactly this plot for years. Ive added it to my bookmarks for quick reference. So its volume is counted as Orville inflow. San Francisco operates three medium-sized hydro-electric power plants in the Tuolumne River watershed Kirkwood, Moccasin, and Holm. 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. Los Angeles,Orange CountyandSan Josehave developed ambitious water recycling programs and have vastly improved local groundwater management. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I think the problem is with the CDEC database (as the LakesOnline website also has had incorrectly high information). I noticed that Folsom does not change whereas every reservoir changes on an hourly update. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS }, 150); Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Your tools are awesome just hurts when you receive bad data at times! This is an excellent tool you have put together. Commission. Great visualization Chris! So many facets beautifully chartered. I was thinking that it would be interesting to compare inflows and outflows. 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. . Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves San Francisco, scenic mountain valley in a national park. Data have been checked by the reporting agency. What rates am I paying? During most years, there will be a 30-day shut down of the Hetch Hetchy source in the winter months. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre-feet, had the smallest increase, from 29% in December to 30% in January. Curious why Shasta lake seems to be making big gains in water coming in and Trinity not so much? 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%.