[M T]

After Hilary, most of the state is drought free, just 6% is in drought conditions. Doesn't sound like we captured much of the water, and our aquifers -- and aquifers nationwide -- remain under stress.

California is now practically drought-free, but we keep wasting so much rainwater

And, for a different view of the elephant,
https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/arti...310957.php
"Now only 1.38% of California is experiencing moderate or worse drought"  The 6.7% number is for "abnormally dry" (drought).

Orange County captured 10,500 acre-feet of water.  It filled half of the allowable stormwater capture behind Prado Dam, which apparent is pumped back into the aquifer storage.  "It’s a lot of water, it’s unprecedented at least back to the 1930s."  By this article, that's enough water for 100,000 people for a year.

In the "wasting" link above, the article (credited to the L.A. Times)  says LA County captured 10,000 acre-feet of water, enough for 40,000 households for a year.   I guess 40,000 households = 100,000 people roughly

"However that 10,000 acre-feet only makes up about 7% of the water the city has captured since October,"
"County-operated spreading grounds, of which there more than two dozen, captured approximately 8,600 acre-feet of stormwater during Hilary's storms...... that amounts to less than 2% of the county's stormwater captured since October."
L.A. County and L.A. city are different.  So I guess the two collected 18,600 a.f. in Hilary, and  143,000 + 430,000 = 573,000 a.f. since October.  That's enough water for 2.3M households or 5.46M people for a year.

No doubt we have the technology to pump the aquifers dry.  It is a matter of policy(etc) whether we do or not.  According to the state, 43% of the groundwater wells are below normal while 25% are above normal.   (IMO, such statistics are potentially misleading because it is "number of wells" versus "water demand vs supply")

Btw, on the above DWR page, I couldn't get to some dashboards by their graphic links.  But I could go to the 20-year trends dashboard, and then get to other dashboards.

[M T]

After Hilary, most of the state is drought free, just 6% is in drought conditions. Doesn't sound like we captured much of the water, and our aquifers -- and aquifers nationwide -- remain under stress.

California is now practically drought-free, but we keep wasting so much rainwater

And, for a different view of the elephant,
https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/arti...310957.php
"Now only 1.38% of California is experiencing moderate or worse drought"  The 6.7% number is for "abnormally dry" (drought).

Orange County captured 10,500 acre-feet of water.  It filled half of the allowable stormwater capture behind Prado Dam, which apparent is pumped back into the aquifer storage.  "It’s a lot of water, it’s unprecedented at least back to the 1930s."  By this article, that's enough water for 100,000 people for a year.

In the "wasting" link above, the article (credited to the L.A. Times)  says LA County captured 10,000 acre-feet of water, enough for 40,000 households for a year.   I guess 40,000 households = 100,000 people roughly

"However that 10,000 acre-feet only makes up about 7% of the water the city has captured since October,"
"County-operated spreading grounds, of which there more than two dozen, captured approximately 8,600 acre-feet of stormwater during Hilary's storms...... that amounts to less than 2% of the county's stormwater captured since October."
L.A. County and L.A. city are different.  So I guess the two collected 18,600 a.f. in Hilary, and  143,000 + 430,000 = 573,000 a.f. since October.  That's enough water for 2.3M households or 5.46M people for a year.

No doubt we have the technology to pump the aquifers dry.  It is a matter of policy(etc) whether we do or not.  According to the state, 43% of the groundwater wells are below normal while 25% are above normal.   (IMO, such statistics are potentially misleading because it is "number of wells" versus "water demand vs supply")

Btw, on the above DWR page, I couldn't get to some dashboards by their graphic links.  But I could go to the 20-year trends dashboard, and then get to other dashboards.