STORMS STIR HOPE OF PLENTY WATER ALLOCATIONS MAY RISE.Byline: Kathleen Sweeney Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - Though a winter storm dumped rain and snow in California last week, it wasn't enough for state officials to increase the amount of water that contractors, including the Castaic Lake Castaic Lake is a lake on Castaic Creek formed by Castaic Dam, in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, near the town of Castaic. The 323,700 acre foot lake (399,000,000 m³) is the terminus of the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, though some comes from the 154 mi² Water Agency, will receive this year, officials said. But CLWA CLWA Chip-Level Weibull Analysis CLWA Children living with AIDS (Lancaster, OH) officials are optimistic that as more storms move into the state, the Department of Water Resources will increase the allocation that now stands at 20 percent. ``Things are looking up,'' said Mary Lou Cotton, CLWA assistant to the general manager. ``This last storm really was like our dream storm. It's the kind you hope for.'' About 8 inches of rain and snow fell in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern last week and increased the amount of water in the snow pack from 48 percent to 63 percent, Cotton said. That water will eventually run off during the spring thaw and into the Feather River
The Feather River is a principal tributary of the Sacramento River, 170 miles in length, in Northern California in the United States. drainage basin drainage basin: see catchment area. , which feeds Lake Oroville, the main storage reservoir for the State Water Project. Cotton said state officials will measure the snow pack again on March 1 and hope the water percentage in the snow will have increased to 70 or 80 percent. ``We are hoping they will raise the allocation to about 30 percent,'' she said. ``If we can continue these storms through March, it could go up from there.'' Curtis Spencer, a Department of Water Resources principal engineer, said last week's storm helped provide more moisture in the watershed and added to the snow pack. It also helped recharge ground-water basins throughout the state, including Castaic Lake and the Kern River, as well as reduce the amount of demand for irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. , he said. But the rain didn't add much, if any, to the water supplies, Spencer said. ``It's going to take quite a bit of rain to get us to the point where we can increase the allocation,'' he said. How much precipitation is needed to increase the allocations is unclear, he said. Officials should make a decision on the increase by mid-March. The National Weather Service officials said a storm that was expected to arrive late Saturday evening could drop about another half inch today. |
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