SAN LUIS RESERVOIR The San Luis Reservoir, one of the largest in California, stores water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and sends it by aqueduct to the Bay Area and Southern California. In midsummer, it held about 20 percent capacity. 74 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SEP 2014 RUN DRY AFTER THREE HISTORICALLY DRY YEARS, CALIFORNIA’S DROUGHT GROWS MORE CONFOUNDING AND THE FUTURE OF ITS WATER SUPPLY MORE UNCERTAIN. BY BILL MARKEN, HONORARY ASLA PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER BENNETT/GREEN STOCK PHOTOS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SEP 2014 / 75 O TALK ABOUT DROUGHT IN CALIFORNIA, YOU COULD START WITH THE MID-HOLOCENE PERIOD, WHEN A 1,400-YEAR DROUGHT LOWERED LAKE TAHOE 20 FEET AND LASTED LONG ENOUGH FOR CONIFERS TO GROW THREE FEET THICK ABOVE THE RECEDING WATERLINE before the lake eventually rose back up water. One spokesperson for a water At my neighborhood market in the over them. Or with the 1930s, when agency said, “We’re technically not in heart of Silicon Valley, Jim the butch- farm families escaped the Dust Bowl a drought”—that agency had enough er told me why the price of lamb has of Texas and Oklahoma and ran up water. Another agency said, “The dis- skyrocketed—rack of lamb, bones, T OPPOSITE against a California dry spell nearly as trict could run out of water by July.” fat, and all, sells for $29 a pound. devastating. Or start with 1976–1977, An operator of sled dog teams in the He said, “We usually get our lamb Water from Northern then the driest rainy season recorded, Sierra has gone out of business from from the Central Valley, where the California is sent south to Los Angeles by way when drastic water-saving measures a lack of snow, and a Modesto golf sheep graze on winter grass. There’s of the 400-mile-long inspired memorable gallows-humor course has shut down from a lack of nothing to eat this year, so the val- California Aqueduct advice such as, “If it’s yellow, let it water, but Palm Springs golf courses ley lambs are small, and we have before it is pumped mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” are as green as ever. to bring in meat from a lot farther over the mountains at away, like Colorado.” I didn’t want the south end of the But let’s begin with a road trip, 500 As I drove through the state, it to jeopardize our relationship by tell- San Joaquin Valley. miles through the middle of Cali- was easy to see that not everyone ing Jim about Costco’s $10-a-pound fornia’s current water crisis, near is affected equitably by the water lamb from New Zealand. the end of winter and a rainy season shortage and the prospect of an that never came, the third in a row. even drier future. But the drought’s About the same time, Water in the The driest calendar year in Califor- power plainly showed in the color West, an interdisciplinary program nia’s recorded history had recently of the hills, in the levels of lakes and at Stanford, held a panel discussion ended, and the entire 2013–2014 streams, and in the tense faces and on the drought. Leon Szeptycki, the rainy season (measured from July sometimes angry, often confused program’s executive director, called 1 through June 30) was looking words of everyone who depends on a this drought “the worst drought on bleak, too—measurements at the water supply that is always essential record.” The Sierra snowpack, a ma- end would put it among California’s but never predictable or controllable. jor source of the Bay Area’s water three driest years. The current win- supply, was at an all-time record low ter was also the warmest in 119 years THE BAY AREA to date, he said. “Nearly 70 percent of record keeping, adding to threats of California is experiencing extreme of wildfires; by this summer, most of ast the midpoint of the rainy sea- or exceptional drought conditions. the state would be above normal for P son, it seemed in the San Francis- The challenge is how to get by this “significant wildland fire potential,” co Bay Area that Uber and out-of-sight year and in the future.” according to the California Depart- real estate prices monopolized more ment of Forestry and Fire Protection. conversations than the almost total Daniel Swain, a Stanford graduate lack of winter rain. But there were student who runs the blog weather Early in the year, Governor Edmund troubling hints of unusual goings-on. west.com, says, “It’s the driest period G. Brown Jr. declared a “drought The grassy hills were still brown and in San Francisco since at least the emergency” and asked for volun- would never get enough rain all sea- Gold Rush.” Swain calls the source tary 20 percent cutbacks in water son to turn into lush green pastures. of the drought the “Ridiculously Re- use. But how this emergency hits Cattle ranchers, now mostly long silient Ridge.” A high-pressure zone different areas depends on where gone from the area, used to say it over the northeastern Pacific was your water comes from, how well was a good year for grazing when directing storms to the north instead your area has prepared for drought, fall precipitation turned the foothills of allowing them to burst through as and for what purpose you want the green by Thanksgiving. in a normal year. This ridge is “part 76 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SEP 2014 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SEP 2014 / 77 ABOVE Home landscapes use as much as 80 percent of residential water supplies. 78 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SEP 2014 of the anomalies in the upper atmo- population, land use, and water sup- toral vision of old California: There sphere” that also caused last winter’s plies in the past 50 years. The county were hillsides and arroyos studded severe storms in the Midwest and grew from a population of 175,000 with sycamores and valley oaks, and Northeast. in 1940 to 642,000 in 1960 and is cattle were grazing on the slim pick- approaching two million today. ings of pale green grass that had The East Bay Municipal Utility Dis- sprouted after recent showers. The trict (MUD), which serves 1.3 mil- As I drove south through Silicon Val- first valley landmark hit like a slap lion people, asked its customers to ley I spotted scattered orchards of back to reality. The nine-mile-long cut back water use voluntarily by sweet cherries and apricots bloom- San Luis Reservoir looks like a bath- 10 percent. Abby Figueroa, a util- ing early because of the unseasonal tub of brownish water, with not a ity spokesperson, says, “The district warmth. Farms and ranches are green tree or green blade of grass learned our lesson in past droughts, mostly gone, supplanted by the tilt- in sight. San Luis is a major hub for and we’re in better shape than other up buildings, parking lots, malls, and collecting water from the dams and areas.” Its reservoirs holding Sierra subdivisions of the high-tech boom. canals of the federal Central Valley river water are half full, and this year In my formerly tiny hometown in the Project and the California State Wa- the district has arranged for Sacra- valley, a long-gone local hamburger ter Project and directing it to valley mento River water as well. hangout that was owned by a for- farmers as well as to the Bay Area mer deputy sheriff and patronized and Southern California. The reser- Since the devastating 1977–1978 mostly by cattle ranchers and fruit voir can hold two million acre-feet of drought, the East Bay MUD’s conser- growers every year displayed a black- water (an acre-foot is the amount of vation programs have emphasized board posting cumulative rainfall. water covering one acre to a depth water-saving landscapes. In 2004, And there was a pool: Put up a dollar of one foot); this winter it was at 33 the district published its own 320- and the closest to the season total percent of capacity. page book, Plants and Landscapes for won. Everyone talked about rainfall. Summer-Dry Climates. The book’s Almost all of the water came from The Central Valley includes about editor and main writer was Nora local wells. one-sixth of all the irrigated land in Harlow, a landscape architect who is the United States. Its water needs now a community affairs represen- Today the area depends on water im- are immense, drawing about three- tative with the district. Harlow says ported from systems originating far fourths of the state’s water supply. that area homeowners have learned away in Sierra rivers and the Sacra- Shielded from the ocean’s weather- to cut back, particularly indoors, mento–San Joaquin River Delta and moderating influence by the Diablo by retrofitting low-flow toilets and on local reservoirs built half a cen- Range, the 450-mile-long valley is a showerheads. “About all that’s left tury ago that are just a third full this different world from the Bay Area for additional water conservation is year. The Santa Clara Valley Water climatically (much hotter), economi- the landscape. Irrigation can be done District announced a mandatory 20 cally (dependent on agriculture), and more efficiently.” She expects many percent cut in water usage from 2013 politically (far more conservative). lawns to turn brown and advises levels. Incentives for conservation The farther south you go, the drier holding off on major planting: “Wait were boosted: Rebates for converting it turns.