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.
But the deluge on the surface has barely replenished the state’s groundwater, the 401(k) on which this and future generations of Californians will depend. Decades of mismanagement and below-average rainfall have led farmers, homeowners and businesses to drain it. With a heating planet making extreme weather such as droughts and floods more likely, it would be a grave error to think a few months of precipitation will let the state off the hook for shoring up this critical resource.
