SACRAMENTO – (INT) - The Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced Thursday January 26th that recent storms will allow the State Water Project (SWP) to boost deliveries.

The DWR now expects to deliver 30 percent of requested water supplies this year. It’s still less than half but up from the initial 5 percent announced in December.

The allocation increase is the direct result of extreme weather in late December and nine atmospheric rivers in early January that helped fill reservoirs and dramatically increase the Sierra Nevada snowpack.

There are 29 public water agencies serving 27 million Californians that draw from the State Water Project.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California welcomed the increase but noted it continued to draw down the level of its largest local reservoir, Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet, to meet demands. The MWD added that conditions on its other source of imported water, the Colorado River, remain uncertain.

Story Date: February 22, 2023