Nearly all of California's reservoir's are above their historical averages

Reservoir Conditions & Management

• After several wet winters, most California surface reservoirs are above historical averages, though collectively not 100% full.
• Managers have been releasing water to preserve flood space for snowmelt and to control salinity in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and protect ecosystems and water exports.
• Interactive dashboards (for reservoirs, snowpack, and precipitation) highlight high interannual variability and frequent multi‑year runs of below‑median rainfall.

Debate Over New Reservoirs

• Some argue California “should have built more reservoirs” to handle 4–6+ year droughts and growing population.
• Others respond that most good dam sites are already used, new surface storage has diminishing returns, and reservoirs only store water they receive; they can’t solve long‑term supply deficits.
• The Sites Reservoir project is cited as a rare new large facility, enabled by streamlined environmental review; there is concern that reliance on discretionary exemptions is both necessary in crisis and potentially corrupting.
• Skeptics note that even now, many reservoirs are not full, and extra capacity could simply increase evaporation if inflows don’t rise.

Groundwater, Aquifers, and Subsidence

• Multiple comments stress that the largest “reservoir” is groundwater, which is in poor shape.
• Over‑pumping in regions like the San Joaquin Valley has caused significant land subsidence and loss of aquifer storage that is effectively irreversible on human timescales.
• Some push back that compaction depends on geology and timescales, so effects are nuanced, but others provide measurements showing meters of long‑term subsidence.
• Permeable surfaces and recharge efforts help, but aquifer behavior varies; some systems readily refill, others do not.

Agriculture, Crops, and Water Use

• Roughly 80% of human water use in California is attributed to agriculture; residential use is flat or declining despite population growth.
• There is disagreement over which crops are the real problem: some blame almonds, others say alfalfa (especially for export) is far worse in water intensity and value.
• Critics argue that policies effectively subsidize water‑intensive export agriculture and large agribusiness, while residential users face rationing and higher bills.

Climate Variability and Infrastructure

• Several comments note that California has always had large swings between wet and dry, including historic mega‑droughts and major floods; the 20th century may have been unusually wet.
• Climate change is framed as amplifying volatility and making past design assumptions obsolete; infrastructure everywhere (not just dams) needs expensive, uncertain upgrades.
• Others emphasize that “new normal” claims are recent, even though scientists had warned for decades about longer, harsher droughts.

Policy, Pricing, and Regulation

• Opinions diverge on whether the core problem is lack of storage, overallocated rights, or mismanaged demand (especially agriculture).
• CEQA and similar laws are blamed by some for blocking infrastructure; others highlight deeper issues like water compacts, “use‑it‑or‑lose‑it” rules, and political power of farm interests.
• On pricing, some support permanently higher rates to encourage conservation; others call for tiered pricing that penalizes heavy users (especially large farms) rather than all households.
• There is tension between seeing more dams as necessary adaptation vs. an expensive, environmentally damaging band‑aid that doesn’t fix structural overuse.

Other Ideas and Side Notes

• Suggestions include expanding groundwater recharge (e.g., flooding fields), soil water‑harvesting in mountains, and even experimental “ice stupas,” though feasibility in California is questioned (temperature, scale).
• Thread also contains side debates over units (acre‑feet vs. metric), grammar in the title, and the broader social/political response to droughts and floods.