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California’s drought continues

California is in its fifth year of drought and the state’s agriculture secretary, Karen Ross, says it has become the “new normal” in the Golden State.

“There is a perception that because we did get snow and we had rain in northern California, that the drought was over,” Ross says. “But that happened in northern California and the snowpack, because of warmer-than-normal temperatures, melted sooner than it normally does. So we just didn’t have that constant snowpack feeding into our reservoir system.”

Because of the drought’s severity, Ross says, there have been significant changes in how California’s water system is managed.

“A lot of reservoirs are being managed to try to maintain temperatures for fish species. We have a number of biological opinions that have really limited what we can transfer from north to south—and because we didn’t get that precipitation in the Central Valley or Southern California, we have a significant portion of the state that’s still suffering a very severe drought.”

Ross made those comments in an interview with Brownfield at the recent meeting of state ag department heads, held in Lincoln, Nebraska.

AUDIO: Karen Ross on California’s drought