вЂњIf weвЂ™d had Sites in place this year, there would have been 1 million acre-feet of water for farms and cities,вЂќ says Sites Executive Director Jerry Brown - no relation to the former governor, who lives on his ranch nearby. But right now, local sponsors are still enmeshed in environmental reviews. The remaining money would come from water users. The state has tentatively pledged $836 million and the federal government has appropriated $80 million. ThereвЂ™s a sensible large project being planned in Colusa County, an off-stream reservoir named Sites that would hold 1.5 million acre-feet of water siphoned off the nearby Sacramento River. ThatвЂ™s one practical problem.ДЄs drought worsens, California farmers are being paid not to grow cropsДЄs Colorado River levels continue to drop, water agencies are working with local growers to leave some fields fallow in exchange for cash payments. The state is riddled with earthquake faults. WeвЂ™ve about run out of feasible locations.

Virtually every California river worth damming already has been. WeвЂ™ve got a boatload of reservoirs - nearly 1,500. Well, weвЂ™re about done with dams, frankly. The common public cry is that California needs more big dams and that the state has been derelict in not building them. ItвЂ™s going to be tough sledding, to mix metaphors.вЂќ вЂњThis is what droughts of the future are going to look like. The strategy has been that itвЂ™s going to rain and snow and become runoff. вЂњIt revealed the weaknesses in our thinking - in our gold rush, year-to-year mentality. We have to be honest about that,вЂќ Mount says. Sierra runoff that hydrologists expected to replenish reservoirs simply vanished.Д¬onsequently, some of Northern CaliforniaвЂ™s biggest reservoirs are stashing far-below-average amounts of water for this time of year - Shasta 36%, Oroville 37%, Folsom 42% and New Melones 62%. The Sierra вЂњwas basically a dry sponge,вЂќ says Jeffrey Mount, a water scientist at the Public Policy Institute of California. ThatвЂ™s what happened last winter and spring.

So, snow and rain soak into the soil or evaporate into the air before the water can become runoff that fills foothill reservoirs. The ground and atmosphere have become warmer and drier. The stateвЂ™s principal watershed, the Sierra, has changed substantially. Meanwhile, weвЂ™ve got a different mountain landscape than existed in 1960, let alone 1924. That project has never really been updated to meet population growth. Pat BrownвЂ™s controversial - and long since heralded - State Water Project in 1960, CaliforniaвЂ™s population was less than 16 million. The fact that weвЂ™re the most populous state in the nation is a very mixed blessing and certainly a burden in our efforts to ensure reliable water supply. Newsom declared a statewide drought emergency Tuesday, as officials announced that Californians reduced water use an average of 5% in August. Newsom declares statewide drought emergency, urges California to conserve water

Tough nuts to crack crossword