| USA TODAY | - |
SACRAMENTO
- In what could become one of California's biggest crises in years,
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency Friday, an
action that sets the stage for some new state and federal efforts.
Low snowpack in the Sierra will not ease water woes.
The governor also wants to focus Californians on the possibility of water shortages ahead.
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"All I can report to you is it's not raining today and it's not likely to rain for several weeks," Brown said in a news conference in San Francisco.
An analysis released Thursday from the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that tracks drought nationwide, calls the situation in most of California and northern Nevada extreme.
2013 became the driest year on record in the state; San Francisco had the least rain since record keeping there began during the gold rush of 1849.
And for the past few weeks, lawmakers and California residents have been urging Brown to make the drought official, a situation made clear with the bleak news from the first Sierra snowpack measurement of the season Jan. 10.
The northern Sierra has a snowpack that's only 8% of normal for this date, according to the latest measurements released Thursday from the California Department of Water Resources. The central Sierra is at 16% of normal; the southern Sierra at 22%. The mountain snowpack, while a boon for Lake Tahoe ski resorts, also acts like a reservoir during winter and early spring, providing the state with its biggest and most reliable water supply.
Brown is urging voluntary water conservation to the tune of a 20% reduction. But he stopped short of saying such a reduction should be mandatory — for now, at least.
"We ought to be ready for a long, continuous, persistent effort," he said.
His executive order directs state officials to offer extra help to farmers and California communities with the most at stake in a drought, including the possibility of drinking-water shortages.
Brown also directed state agencies to use less water than they do now and to hire more firefighters for what already is a very dry winter. The state had six active wildfires Friday morning, including one that started as a campfire Thursday, destroyed five homes and threatened neighborhoods east of Los Angeles.
Most of California's farmers rely on irrigation to grow broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, melons, lettuce and tomatoes year-round that are shipped across the USA.
"Drought conditions are wreaking havoc on farmers in California, especially in the San Joaquin Valley" from south of Sacramento to Bakersfield," Tom Nassif, Western Growers president and chief executive, said in a statement thanking Brown for his executive order. "The situation is dire and requires the full attention of state and federal leaders, which is why the declaration is so important."
State water experts have compared current conditions to the bleak 1976-77 drought season in California, one that Brown also oversaw during his first term in office. The governor fielded a question about the comparisons Friday and simply said it's a reminder that Californians need to look back at the conservation efforts of that era in how they use water in 2014.
"This effort is a call to arms," he said.
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