As the Sierra snowpack thaws, Califonia braces for flooding disasters; the area produces a fourth of the nation's food

Houses partly underwater after the San Joaquin River
flooded in March. (Photo by Fred Greaves, Reuters)

It's spring in California, and the Sierra Nevada snowpack is beginning to melt, but where will all the water go? "Across California's long, flat, usually parched and dusty Central Valley, farmers and residents are used to waiting for water to come. But not like this," report Brianna Sacks and Brady Dennis of The Washington Post. "The snowpack, more than 230 percent of normal, will melt, sending a massive amount of water into the vulnerable, low-lying valley below — and toward flood control systems that in many cases are woefully unprepared to handle it."

The Central Valley (Wikipedia)

The valley lies between the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. "The possible slow-moving disaster looming above the Central Valley — a densely populated agricultural powerhouse that produces a fourth of the nation's food — has the potential to cause billions in loss and damage," Sasks and Dennis write. "[It will] affect tens of thousands of residents, many of them farmworkers and families with low incomes who have already this year endured significant flooding and sodden crops."

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at California's Water Policy Center, told the Post, "We knew this type of sprawling disaster was coming, and it's the rural communities who get very little help, struggle to rebuild, and then get hit again." The Post reports, "California's water history and issues are complex. Agricultural companies, the Army Corps of Engineers and the state have all been key players in planning and funding projects in areas they deemed most worthwhile to protect. As a result, more rural, disadvantaged and predominantly Latino communities with little political clout have seen far less investment, experts said."

Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources, told the Post the state has been working on an "extraordinary plan needed to move an extraordinary amount of water." Sacks and Dennis report, "For many communities across the valley, there is not much they can do about the looming catastrophe except wait."

The extent of water damage depends on the snowmelt's pace. Andy Bollenbacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in California, told the Post, "It's difficult to speculate when this will happen. . . .There's no real good analog, especially because there's so much water up there." The Post reports, "Ideally, the snowpack will melt slowly over the spring and summer. But so-called 'rain on snow' events, or a scorching and extended heat wave, could send catastrophic amounts of water racing toward communities downstream."

The Post explains, "California has always had problems managing for floods, said Jay Lund, a professor of engineering at the University of California because protecting profitable crops from drought usually takes precedent. . . . The melting snow, however fast it arrives, will probably bring more than a colossal amount of water to the valleys below the Sierra Nevada. It will also bring with it renewed questions about how California should deal with similar winters of the future and the weather extremes that are becoming more common."