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California Needs 11 Trillion Gallons of Water To End Drought

  •  Amy Quinton 
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 | Sacramento, CA
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Gary Kazanjian / AP
 

Gary Kazanjian / AP

For the first time, scientists used data from satellites to calculate what it takes to end a drought.

For California, it’s a sobering statistic: 11 trillion gallons or about 30 million acre feet.

The finding was released at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.Water scientist Jay Famiglietti with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the new research can be used to inform water management decisions in the state.

“We have a target that we can shoot for now the next step is to really work on quantifying when it rains a certain amount how much of that can actually end up in storage,”says Famiglietti.

NASA scientists also released an equally grim picture of the amount of water in the Sierra Nevada snowpack in early 2014.

The Airborne Snow Observatory found that it was only half of previous estimates and the worst since 1977. 


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    More about drought

  • State Of Drought

    Reservoir levels are at historic lows, municipalities are ordering mandatory conservation and farmers are bracing for water shortages. CapRadio is following how Californians are being impacted by the drought.

 droughtwaterNASAAirborne Snow Observatory

Amy Quinton

Former Environment Reporter

Amy came to Sacramento from New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) where she was Environment Reporter. Amy has also reported for NPR member stations WFAE in Charlotte, WAMU in Washington D.C. and American Public Media's "Marketplace."  Read Full Bio 

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