State needs wet March to meet water needs

By Stuart Leavenworth, Bee Staff Writer

Updated: Feb. 26, 2001 - 4:43 p.m.

Adequate water for farmers, fish and hydroelectric plants will hinge on whether March comes in like a lion or a lamb. Recent storms have swelled reservoirs and deepened the Sierra snowpack to 75 percent of normal, state forecasters and water managers said Monday.

But unless California gets more white stuff, the state will face a relative shortfall of hydroelectricity this summer, when millions of whirring air conditioners will push the state’s power supplies to its limit.

“What we are really hoping for is a miracle March,” said Thomas Hannigan, director of the state Department of Water Resources, in a briefing Monday.

“It’s tough to recover after three months of dry weather,” added DWR’s Dan Flory, referring to November, December and January.

For more details, read Tuesday's Bee.

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), February 27, 2001