04 Apr Amid above-average snowpack, Newsom urges focus on state water resilience and adaptation
With California snowpack and reservoirs at above-average levels following two wet winters, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on a snowy field near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday and urged the state to do much more to make its water supplies resilient to the extreme droughts and flooding that come with climate change.
“These extremes are becoming the new reality, and that new reality requires a new approach,” Newsom said. “The water system in California was designed for a world that no longer exists.”
The governor presented a new water plan that lays out priorities for changing how the state captures, stores and moves water, including efforts to replenish groundwater, recycle wastewater and restore the natural ecosystems of watersheds.
Newsom said his administration is focusing on infrastructure projects such as building the Sites Reservoir — the first new major reservoir in decades — and he vowed to move ahead with the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.