Bikers splash in still waters on Highway 101 in San Francisco on January 4.
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Bikers splash in still waters on Highway 101 in San Francisco on January 4.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
A bomb tornado hit California this week, knocking out power, downing trees, and dumping massive amounts of water.
Some Californians watch this precious H20 wash away and wonder, why can’t we save water for the times we need it most?
The state is grappling with drought, but it’s not as simple as putting down a big bucket, says Andrew Fisher, a hydrogeologist and professor at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Professor Fisher spoke with NPR about the challenges facing the state, as well as the opportunities already being worked on.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
About how much water can be stored for later and where
Some of it can be caught for later, but the short answer is that it falls so quickly that we lack the ability to take that water and set it aside quickly enough somewhere we can store it for later. The primary forms of water storage in California are snowpack, which usually accumulates annually, then reservoirs behind dams, and then aquifers.
The challenge is that when heavy rains like this fall, they don’t form a snowpack in the low-lying areas. Tanks tend to fill up very quickly. Then we have aquifers, and they have space, but it’s hard to get the water where it’s needed so it can seep into the ground. And even then, it’s hard to get it fast enough.
About different challenges with rainwater capture
Because water falls at a very fast rate and creates a hazard, we tend to treat storm water as a nuisance and try to get it out of the landscape as quickly as possible.
So, when we have the option to block that water a little bit and let it seep into the ground, that’s a huge opportunity. However, sometimes this water is not suitable for drinking. This is an additional bottleneck because you can’t process the water as fast as it falls or as quickly as it runs out. Of course, the level of treatment you need may vary from place to place, and it’s a huge logistical challenge to deal with that water.
The Golden Gate Bridge is seen through a mixture of rain and falling Gulf waters in Sausalito on January 5.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
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The Golden Gate Bridge is seen through a mixture of rain and falling Gulf waters in Sausalito on January 5.
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About where storm water flows when it’s not being picked up
He’s going to a variety of places. A lot of it will end up in the ocean. Some of it is diverted and we collect some of that storm water and direct it toward infiltration basins where it can seep into the ground.
There are other people around the state and around the western United States who are running similar projects. So people try to collect as much storm water as possible when we have that chance. It turns out that a lot of water is falling, a lot of water is flowing, so a good portion of that ends up flowing into the ocean.
About the current storm with more rain
I have a student group out now, sampling some of our systems. And we set out here in between storms, because it’s an opportunity when it’s safe to go collect water samples and see what the water quality looks like. I will just note that we have to get more water into the Earth. We simply don’t have a choice