The long term drought continued through September with little change. Reservoirs across the area were continuing to drop well below normal levels. All major reservoirs across the state were less that 40% of capacity. Folsom Lake was down to 18% of capacity, approaching near-record low levels for September, seen last in 1977. 70 homes in Butte County are without well water. The numbers reflect cumulative reports of household water shortages by county reported to the state since January 2014.
A growing number of residential wells are running dry. The Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System showed 70 homes in Butte County without well water. Other counties reported residential water shortages as follows: Tuolumne 333, Glenn County 27; Shasta County 2; Tehama County 34.
Extreme drought continued to be detected by the U.S. Drought Monitor across most the region, with exceptional drought for the northern San Joaquin Valley, the central and southern Sacramento Valley, the Burney Basin and the Sierra.
The continued dry weather and periods of hot temperatures left vegetation parched and ready to burn. Wildfire activity was far above normal levels in September, with the Valley Fire becoming the 3rd most destructive wildfire in California history, and the Butte Fire the 7th most destructive.
Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state of California January 17, 2014 and this continued to be in effect.
Local Emergency Proclamations have been issued for El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Plumas, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sutter, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties. The cities of Live Oak Lodi, and Ripon continue in a drought emergency. Drought task forces have been established in Butte, Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne, and Yolo counties to coordinate response to the drought.
Mandatory water reductions of 25 percent as ordered by Governor Brown continued to be in effect statewide, the first time such mandatory restrictions have been enacted.
Agriculture has been heavily impacted, with numerous farm and farm related jobs lost. The UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences released a new report indicating that California’s ongoing drought will impact the state’s agricultural economy this year by an estimated $2.7 billion and eliminate more than 21,000 jobs. The state continued to supply food assistance to those impacted, along with California Disaster Assistance Act money for those who have lost drinking water due to dry wells. Approximately 743,642 boxes of food were distributed to 391,003 households in affected communities that suffered high levels of unemployment from the drought. Nonprofit organizations in the San Joaquin Valley were struggling to meet the needs of their clients for drought-related programs. One area crop which is being heavily impacted is rice production, which is expected to fall by about 30 percent due to water shortages.
Low runoff in streams and rivers on fish and ecological continues to cause adverse affects on forests and wildlife, including the endangered Delta Smelt and winter run Chinook Salmon. High temperatures in the Sacramento River are having a particularly strong effect on young salmon, and could repeat the major fish kill seen in the summer of 2014.
Air quality in the Valley has been poor throughout the drought, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley, due to the lack of rain to wash particles from the air and dust from unplanted fields and newly dug wells. Smoke from recent fires has worsened air quality significantly, causing problems even for healthy people. Asthma has become a much bigger problem in the Valley since the start of the drought.