Curious why Shasta lake seems to be making big gains in water coming in and Trinity not so much? Great graphs and very useful. Thinking more about it. San Francisco's water-bank in Don Pedro Reservoir, downstream on the Tuolumne River, holds twice as much water as Hetch Hetchy. Lake Shasta, the state's largest reservoir, rose 2.9 feet and added 31,020 acre-feet of water. O'Shaughnessy Dam was built on the Tuolumne River in 1923 to create Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Francisco Public Utilities Commissions 26 wholesale customers 2022 All Rights Reserved. What rates am I paying? Sometimes this is well done sometimes it is poorly done. Lake Shasta and Mendocino are also well below average. GNSS2 - Level 2 Quality Survey Grade Global Navigation Satellite System. https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=SHA The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite delivers water to 2.6 million Bay Area residents every day. Most local reservoir inflow timeseries are too short to calculate long-term values. Thank you! proposition that would have funded an $8 million study on how In 2016, a Tuolumne County Superior Court judge dismissed the Excellent graphic! Absolutely zero reason to be releasing this much water from these reservoirs. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. How do I contact support? I see many of the local canals flowing with lots of water. For some strange unknown reason, they are not allowing the lake to fill up. Visualization was done in javascript and specifically the D3.js visualization library. Kellie Hwang is the newsletter editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. in 2018. How can I match up other monitoring locations similar to the ones on this Interactive Dashboard? They are releasing water into the canals. Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . You can also share a custom URL by clicking the Save URL button which will put the custom URL into the URL bar of your browser which you can then copy and share. Restore Hetch Hetchys subsequent appeal to the ruling was It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. Its just small enough that the name doesnt appear as the bar is too thin. Only modest new supplies would be required in the driest years. 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. So many facets beautifully chartered. 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. environmental context. Its great seeing all the reservoirs in California at or near historical averages. Much of the recent inflow was to Hetch Hetchy, which can hold. Only improvement I would suggest is an improvement of the display of the smaller reservoirs so the names are readable. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, Yoohyun.Jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang, @yoohyun_jung. I was thinking that it would be interesting to compare inflows and outflows. it will be cool if there is a way to track the change since Dec or some such date. Could you also do the same for the Colorado River reservoirs to see how they are fairing? I realize there we dont want to reservoirs overflowing, but why are we still below historical average? The construction of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad took place from 1915 to 1918. Here's what that means. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA. Great URL. Water storage facilities include watersheds, dams, and reservoirs including: Calaveras, San Antonio, Crystal Springs, Pilarcitos, and San Andreas. United States. They placed a few dissipators just before the river. word for a type of wild grass. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. 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. Restoring Hetch Hetchy will require some changes in how San Francisco moves and stores water. It wont be full until Spring snowmelt. The average for this time of year is approximately 4,659.57ft, plus or minus 39ft. 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. I would think with the rain it would get to historical average and then more outflow would happen. Begin at O'Shaughnessy Dam. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Really appreciate the work you did to build this graph. San Francisco voters have demonstrated their opposition to 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. I do not see Diamond Valley Lake Resevoir on this page. Wapama Falls (moderate) 5 mi (8 km) round-trip; 2 hours. This is the best one out there. best to drain the valley. You dont see runoff right away, the snow is still up there, frozen, doing what we want it to do, he said. The water travels through a series of pipelines before it reaches the Bay Area and blends with five local reservoirs. Is that from melting snow and rain water coming from the mountains and filling it up? One acre-foot is the equivalent of one acre of land covered in one foot of water. Great work. California boosts water deliveries to highest level in years, thanks to storms, California reservoir levels: Charts show water supply across the state, Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area. Interesting. 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. do so. San Francisco operates three medium-sized hydro-electric power plants in the Tuolumne River watershed Kirkwood, Moccasin, and Holm. Add a button to convert the row heights to log scale. Its not possible to see or really interact with the tiniest slivers. //this function is called from the javascript from within the iframe after the contents of iframe are loaded (and after an additional 150ms delay) Lake Mendocino and Lake Berryessa water levels stayed the same. 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). Monitoring location 11275500 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. P.S. A lock ( You can also use it to monitor only the reservoirs you are most interested in. Ive added it to my bookmarks for quick reference. Eighty-five percent of the water comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt stored in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir situated on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. In 2021, the SFPUC and the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts launched a proactive pilot program with the U.S. This would allow us to see important, but noise-level reservoirs like hetch hetchy. 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. 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. Kudos to the designers. So they should be saving much more and deal with the .000001 of risk later. Generation at Holm powerhouse below Cherry Lake would be less affected. 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. Lock Your email address will not be published. Monitoring location 11277200 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot (131 m) high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, United States.It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, about 160 miles (260 km) east of San Francisco. Should be fixed at some point. Another not monitored by the State? ", The difference in soil type in the two watersheds was likely another factor. earthquake. 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). Yep. Nate, thanks for the insight. finding an alternative water and power source (Hetchy Hetchy also Due to its high-altitude location at 3,900 feet above sea level 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. Even with all the rain and floods, still a long way to fill them to capacity. The reservoir was at 75 percent capacity as of May 5, totaling 269,963 acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is nearly 326,000 gallons). lawsuit, saying Restore Hetch Hetchys arguments were preempted Water data back to 1956 are available online. Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sierra Club unsuccessfully fought the reservoirs establishment A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the Current as of October 03, 2022 | Updated by . Hetch Hetchy is only one of nine reservoirs in the San Francisco Public Utility Commissions water system. You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com. Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. 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. document.getElementById('globes').contentWindow.location.reload(); 2013, photo, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is hazy with smoke . One of the most impressive was Hetch Hetchy, which provides drinking water to 2.6 million people in San Francisco and other Bay Area communities. 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). The recent spate of storms lifted the statewide snowpack to 190% of average for the start of the month, and more snow is on the way. 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. 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. Thanks for the prompt reply! We provide water directly to customers in San Francisco and wholesale through 26 Water agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties. looks like the CDEC website is the cause of the issue unless it actually dropped 90% in a day: Delivering approximately 260 million gallons of water per day, the regional system consists of over 280 miles of pipelines, over 60 miles of tunnels, 11 reservoirs, five pump stations and two water treatment plants. 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. Hi Keith, you could de-select the large reservoirs from the menu at the top right. Reservoir behind OShaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. An improvement: Could you include a bar for Last year at this date? The tremendous inflow to city reservoirs during the recent storms, mostly in and around Yosemite National Park, has lifted San Franciscos total water storage to near capacity. There is something strange about the data over the last two days (Jan.17 to Jan. 19): Also, do they provide inflows and outflows for locations? Arg. United States. But they'll cost you, Fight at high school basketball game in S.F. His recent work has examined the impacts of drought, threats to public lands and wildlife, and the nation's widening rural-urban divide. The Hetch Hetchy Valley today with the dam seen in the lower right. Shasta is the reservoir with the largest capacity and so it is the tallest row. Upcountry and the Bay Area. diversion of water? Restore Hetch Hetchy claimed the phrase had Official websites use .gov 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. After the reservoirs Thanks. over the past few days. 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). Great stuff. 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. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. All rights reserved. It is on the graph. 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. I second that request. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS globe.height = globe.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+40+"px"; reservoir violates the California Constitution specifically the I noticed that Folsom does not change whereas every reservoir changes on an hourly update. Good info to know. This system encompasses more than 1,250 miles of distribution pipelines, as well as 12 in-City reservoirs and eight water tanks with a total storage capacity of approximately 413 million gallons. Before returning to the Bay Area, she held roles as transportation reporter and trending news reporter at the IndyStar in Indianapolis. At this facility, which is shared with other water agencies, the city can stash water for credits against future draws on the river. 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. . 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. This file photo shows Shasta Lake. Theyve also seen drought surcharges on their water bills. I will take a look and see if there are other important reservoirs missing and may add them in the future. At the height of the recent drought, they still had at least four years in storage. And for the years they were hoarding water, the salmon-based ecosystem suffered.. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. Find out more about the system at http://www.sfwater.org, BAWSCA Board Policy Committee Meeting, April 12, 2023 1:30pm. The reservoir is now projected to cost $4.4 billion, with Prop. Similar findings are described in theUC Davis studyRe-Assembling Hetch HetchyandUS Bureau of Reclamation study. 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. SFPUC said as of this week, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir is at 92 percent capacity. 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. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park is seen in 2022. . Why is Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio not listed? No it is correct. In the year prior to Oroville reaching capacity the interactive chart showed the rate of inflow over time. She has been with SFGATE for more than 10 years. The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. 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. For the higher elevations, more of their water comes directly from snowmelt. Article X, Section 2 that requires diversions for all water 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. https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=HTH however, Ill update the code to include it soon. How can I apply to SFPUC? The recent spate of storms lifted the statewide snowpack to 190% of average for the start of the month, and more snow is on the way. For example, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park provides 85 percent of San Francisco's total water needs. Local reservoir inflows have negative daily flow rates set to zero. I like the comparisons of last year, and the historical average. 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. The SFPUC hoards water in dry years when they dont need to, said Peter Drekmeier, policy director at the conservation group Tuolumne River Trust. All Rights Reserved. Born in Seoul, Yoohyun began her career in Arizona, where she worked for two of the state's largest newspapers covering various beats, including criminal justice and education. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929 and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. 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. Within San Francisco, we manage water distribution in the City. Previously, Kellie covered dining news and trends, visual arts, events and nightlife for the Arizona Republic, and freelanced for the former Contra Costa Times. The reservoir is eight miles long and the largest single body of water in Yosemite. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11275500/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D. around the Bay Area rely on the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water 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. 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. window.addEventListener("orientationchange", function() { "In contrast, the Shasta Lake drainage had only a couple of stations in excess of 10 inches whereas most received less. Data have been checked by the reporting agency. Assistant General Manager for Water Steven Ritchie credits the way the system is managed along with lower. Lots of possibilities, just curious. . All of this work is nothing short of brilliant. Kellie has held many leadership roles for the Asian American Journalists Association, including most recently a board member for the San Francisco chapter. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre-feet, had the smallest increase, from 29% in December to 30% in January. Water data back to 1956 are available online. Francisco Bay Area. If we reach 100% after the current rains and then it stops raining for the season, then our percentage will start going down. Hetch Hetchy Level before the storm: 3,729.68 feet Level after the storm: 3,750.99 feet Total rise: 21.31 feet Storage before the storm: 221,500 acre-feet Storage after the storm: 257,800. 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. Long-term values for reservoir inflows use maximum number of complete water years in record. Whats going on with the water level at Oroville? 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 . Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. You can sort the mekko graph by size largest at the top to smallest at the bottom or by reservoir location, from north to south. Related articles . It carried workers and materials for the dam, as well as tourists, postage and other amenities. 7 days 30 days Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. It has no natural inflow or out flow. and its snowmelt-fed water supply, water from Hetch Hetchy 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. the issue, including those under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 501(c)3 organization, federal tax ID #942419885. Part of the lake is on the California side, but it has zero California water impact beyond the immediate Tahoe residents. At the beginning of this water year, which started on October 1, 2022, the state's largest water reservoir, Lake Shasta, was a third full, at 33 percent. November 10, 2022 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water-Policy Officials, SFPUC, and Districts Sign MOU for Tuolumne River to Help Recover Salmon While Protecting Water Reliability. 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. a minimum, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities Id love to see how much water is being / has been released from these reservoirs. **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. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Subscribe to receive email notifications of new content. It used to be full (and beyond). Restore Hetch Hetchy intends to undo this Great American mistake, and return the valley to Yosemite National Park and all people. These graphs will always read low because they represent the percentage of the seasonal average at some point before the end of the season. I would turn this graph, 90 counterclockwise, and start the capacity along the bottom axis from left to right, with the biggest reservoirs on the left and the smaller ones on the right. "It was a very healthy shot in the arm. 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. BAWSCA agencies advocated for the capital improvement program that was adopted by the SFPUC in 2002, and are actively monitoring its implementation. For the class we based all our designs on the USACE spillway design manual. Northern California's reservoir levels continued to rise in the week after an atmospheric river slammed the state with torrential rain and high winds. Climbers Timmy O'Neill (left) and Lucho Rivera atop a wall overlooking Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The water is delivered by a gravity-based system and aqueduct to Thats enough to supply the citys service area for perhaps seven years. drained by the Tuolumne Hetch Hetchy is Monitoring location 11275500. Is it because the laws have changed on how much each reservoir can hold or is it in anticipation of significantly more rain?