Contractors of the State Water Project learned today that their water allocation has been raised to 30% due to late precipitation and snow in March, up from 15% in December. The State Water Project, operated by the Department of Water Resources, provides water for more than 27 million Californians and approximately 750,000 acres of California farmland.

The Department of Water Resources noted that despite above-normal precipitation in March and April, California’s major reservoirs, which are already well above their historical average water levels were unable to capture the increased runoff caused by warming weather.

Coming on the heels of widely-publicized research suggesting climate change may result in increasingly volatile water supplies, DWR’s announcement today underscores the urgent need to expand water storage wherever possible to capture and hold runoff from snow melt.

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