So many facets beautifully chartered. However, I am interested in how much we are saving. Didnt realize how bad things were there. Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . I love this this site too. The amount stored is increasing, just not by a lot. And early forecasts show the rest of the wet season is not likely to produce enough precipitation. Especially for small ones it is hard to identify them and click on them. Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. System for more than 60 percent of their drinking water. "It's an increase of a few percent, . I dont think its currently above the historical average, not below 1 year ago. It seems likely one of those two readings is wrong. 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. California reservoir water levels before and after winter storm Californias snowpack slips below average after dismally dry January, renewing concerns about drought, Busting water limits wont cost you in Marin County: Penalties canceled as rain fills reservoirs, California snowpack hits highest level this century for March. How Much Water is in California Reservoirs? 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. In another sign that Californias drought is easing, San Francisco captured more than a years worth of water in just one months time. Climbers Timmy O'Neill (left) and Lucho Rivera atop a wall overlooking Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The gain came after weather gauges in the area recorded more than 5 inches from one storm. Wapama Falls (moderate) 5 mi (8 km) round-trip; 2 hours. Love easy to read and understand information. Water data back to 1930 are available online. Is it because the laws have changed on how much each reservoir can hold or is it in anticipation of significantly more rain? Best of luck out there in California! According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Hetch SFGATE took a look at reservoir levels three days after the Oct. 24 storm and below we take another look, examining water level rises and storage increases at a broader range of reservoirs roughly a week after the atmospheric river event. 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. Also a little nit. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. Thanks for developing it, and for sharing it with the rest of us! Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). The water treatment facilities are Tesla Ultraviolet Treatment Facility, disinfecting the Hetch Hetchy supply; Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant, treating the water from the Calaveras and San Antonio supply as well as the stored Hetch Hetchy supply; and Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, treating the water from the Crystal Springs and San Andreas supply. The Bay Area transmission system also includes Irvington Tunnel 1 and Tunnel 2, the Bay Tunnel, and the Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel. CHERRY LK NR HETCH HETCHY CA - USGS Water Data for the Nation Could you also show each reservoirs level as a function of time? . Awesome work!! Curt, Good point re the colder weather dropping more snow instead of rain at higher elevations this year. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. How much NorCal reservoirs shot up a week after big storm - SFGATE The data on water storage comes from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Data Exchange Center. From the main road, it's about a 20- to 25-minute drive to the parking area. I find myself coming back to this every few days to check on our water . globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px"; Wonderful site. "Soils that have become hydrophobic due to wildfire can also contribute to increased runoff because the water is less able to penetrate the burned soil," the department said. James Q. Martin / Restore Hetch Hetchy Show More Show Less 4 of 7 Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. hetch hetchy reservoir level percentage - Examiner environmental context. Absolutely zero reason to be releasing this much water from these reservoirs. 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. A truly excellent project. 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 very clear graph and I cannot imagine the hours you have put in while setting it up and doing the maintenance. 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. 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 upcountry portion of the System begins with Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. resizeframe(); I realize there we dont want to reservoirs overflowing, but why are we still below historical average? Owned by the city of San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. A Map and Guide to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at Yosemite - TripSavvy With modest additional investments San Francisco will be able to maintain an uninterrupted supply of high quality Tuolumne River water. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA - USGS Water Data for the Nation 2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205 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. The valley is http://www.tuolumnerivermanagementplan.com. It was my first time using D3 and it took me a long time to get up to speed. FYI it looks like Isabella is reading incorrectly, likely because its well above 100%. Another not monitored by the State? The north (side of the reservoir) usually has two waterfalls going at the best of times, but youll see up and down the canyon walls, if you look close, you count there are about 12 waterfalls running now, said Steve Ritchie, the SFPUCs assistant general manager of water enterprise, during a recent drought report to the agencys governing board. Related articles . in 2018. For some strange unknown reason, they are not allowing the lake to fill up. Its currently listed on this page as 29kaf full, but the usgs.gov page below says Hetch Hetchy is at 299.7kaf full. For the class we based all our designs on the USACE spillway design manual. Here's what that means. That includes the Tuolumne River, which provides water via Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to Bay Area customers. Love the dashboard! I would think with the rain it would get to historical average and then more outflow would happen. PDF Water Supply Update - California Id only be interested in the totals from Oroville and Shasta. Remaining Capacity text in the legend should be brown? 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. Nate, thanks for the insight. Locked padlock Are they releasing water to relieve the pressure in anticipation of more water? 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. These sources include surface water stored in reservoirs located in the Sierra Nevada, Alameda County and San Mateo County, and groundwater supplies stored in a deep aquifer located in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. This is the best one out there. Winter weather conditions may cause road closures. But it has flooded nine miles of a glacier-carved valley and blocks access to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and other nearby areas. San Franciscos water system, which includes Hetchy Hetchy, is expected to fill this winter for the first time since 2019. and maybe another vertical axis to the right of that with reservoir capacity. It didnt end the drought, but it was definitely really good," said Ritchie. 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. In Yosemite National Park, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir relies. The windfall of water is welcome news for households and businesses in San Francisco, which use less water on average compared to the rest of the state but nonetheless have faced calls to cut back since 2021 because of water shortages. Hetchy refers to a valley in the Sierra Nevada and a reservoir that Before returning to the Bay Area, she held roles as transportation reporter and trending news reporter at the IndyStar in Indianapolis. and its snowmelt-fed water supply, water from Hetch Hetchy UPDATE: Here's where California reservoir levels stand after this week's rains. It could be the 180% of historical average of snowpack, which will be melting in a couple months. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. Delivery rates are 7-day average values. For perspective, water demand across the SFPUC's service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. Official websites use .gov 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. How do I contact support? Its just small enough that the name doesnt appear as the bar is too thin. rejected by an appellate court and the California Supreme Court The information on Isabella has been fluctuating drastically (by a factor of 10!) Fish and Wildlife Service that provides an immediate $4 million investment for habitat improvements for fisheries in the Tuolumne River. Thank you so much for the hard work! Official websites use .gov In 2021, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts launched a proactive pilot program with the U.S. Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. 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. Thats a great suggestion and one that would be particularly helpful! Additionally, the bounty helps the more than two dozen communities in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that get their water from the city. California drought: Charts show where reservoir levels stand after a dry January, Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area. California reservoir levels: . United States. A small portion of the citys water comes from local reservoirs. 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. All of this work is nothing short of brilliant. Why is it not listed? Thanks for providing it for public information. around the Bay Area rely on the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water proposition that would have funded an $8 million study on how Your email address will not be published. This dashboard provides a bit more detail on the state of each of the reservoirs while also showing an aggregate total. Arg. One of the big challenges in water management is controling the release. At the same time, theyve also said its critical to maintain sufficient water supplies to keep Bay Area communities and its economy running during a prolonged drought. I have wanted to do exactly this plot for years. Take CA Highway 120 from the park toward Groveland. Major snowstorm might leave you stranded, New 101 express lanes opens in Bay Area. They also built a spillway that was too steep and did not install energy dissipators along the spillway. The dam and reservoir are the source for the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, which provides water for over . 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. The Hetch Hetchy Valley today with the dam seen in the lower right. I am new to the state. since it required flooding a It can take several days to see the full impact on reservoirs as water continues to run through watersheds and into streams in the days after a storm. San Francisco's water-bank in Don Pedro Reservoir, downstream on the Tuolumne River, holds twice as much water as Hetch Hetchy. San Francisco maintained the phrase only Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. But tearing down O'Shaughnessy Dam in order to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley would be a disaster. 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. Storage and Delivery Updates | SFPUC I recently joined the team with Restore Hetch Hetchy as Engagement & Development Director. It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. All rights Before joining the Chronicle, Alexander worked as a freelance writer and as a staff reporter for several media organizations, including The Fresno Bee and Bay Area News Group, writing about government, politics and the environment. It is on the graph. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Occasionally the source water will shift to local reservoirs during routine maintenance to the conveyance system. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. I appreciate the information you are providing. "Some weather monitoring stations in the Feather River drainage received as much as 12 to 19 inches during the period of the storms," the department said. Local reservoir inflows have negative daily flow rates set to zero. located in a national park and it passed the Raker Act in 1913 to Lock This is a marimekko (or mekko) graph which may take some time to understand if you arent used to seeing them. Lock Exclusive: Stunning photos show Yosemite National Park under 15 feet of Warriors treating Andrew Wiggins with understandable patience, but his California snowpack hits highest level this century for March, could Map shows which parts of California exceeded entire years worth of rain, Map shows stunning improvement in California drought, Last chance to see: Bay Bridge lights turn off on Sunday. currently, there is a lot more water coming in than going out. 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. Water is rapidly flowing into the state's reservoirs. In response to the Bay-Delta Plan, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts have proposed the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement, a combination of flow and non-flow measures sufficient to improve all life-stages of native fish populations in the lower Tuolumne River. The captured water is piped 150 miles to the Bay Area. globe = document.getElementById('mekko'); Great URL. 1 covering up to $875 million and much of the rest coming from federal loans to water suppliers. 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. Park visitors walk across OShaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park on Sept. 1. GNSS2 - Level 2 Quality Survey Grade Global Navigation Satellite System. This is wonderful information. 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. I previously made a bar graph showing the overall level of water in the major California reservoirs. The reservoir is now projected to cost $4.4 billion, with Prop. construction in the 1920s, various groups have lobbied to restore looks like the CDEC website is the cause of the issue unless it actually dropped 90% in a day: Great Job on this site! This almost happened with the Orville Dam in 2017. Voters rejected a 2012 That said, most of its outflow makes its way down Feather River (via Rock Creek Reservoir) and ultimately into Orville. 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. Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. In 2007, the Bush This file photo shows Shasta Lake. I havent spent much time looking at it but that data is on the CDEC website. Together, the BAWSCA agencies account for two-thirds of water consumption from the system and pay for two-thirds of its upkeep. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. The reservoir is eight miles long and the largest single body of water in Yosemite. 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. Lake Mendocino and Lake Berryessa water levels stayed the same. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the summer, Gov. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, Yoohyun.Jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang, @yoohyun_jung. draining the reservoir to court, arguing in 2015 that the This is a great and very thoughtfully designed web site! Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. Several cities and water agencies that are now part of BAWSCA urged Congress to pass the Raker Act in 1913, the law that allowed federal lands in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, to be used to build the water system. If you look at this chart for Hetch Hetchy, you can see that the biggest and steadiest rise is between March and July, https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P365D&compare=true. There is something strange about the data over the last two days (Jan.17 to Jan. 19): And more work is underway. Day Hikes in Hetch Hetchy - National Park Service What happened to the Hetch Hetchy level? The construction of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad took place from 1915 to 1918. The only improvement I would ask you to consider is to allow the Y-axis to be Linear or Log, the latter allowing us to see all the small reservoirs quite easily. San Franciscos Hetch Hetchy water system is almost full for the first time in years. Exclusive: Stunning photos show Yosemite National Park under 15 feet of Warriors treating Andrew Wiggins with understandable patience, but his California snowpack hits highest level this century for March, could Map shows which parts of California exceeded entire years worth of rain, Map shows stunning improvement in California drought, Last chance to see: Bay Bridge lights turn off on Sunday. Just a wistful thought, it would be really cool to graph the water release statistics. Next feature request: wire in aquifer level data! Instructions: 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. Jeff, the average changes daily as well. Omar, Thanks! Hetch-Hetchy predicted to fill by end of the snowmelt period 2020-2021 Winter season continues to be dry 2019-2020 was dry, although key differences Feb. 2020 was unusually warm, which impacted snowfall levels and water demands; Feb 2021 was cooler, and hence snowfall level higher and water use lower Even with the latest precipitation, Folsoms values was unchanged. 2013, photo, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is hazy with smoke . Not only does it supply 85 percent of the water for 2.6 million people in San Francisco, controlled releases via the O'Shaughnessy Dam are helping preserve downstream specieseven in dry .