Brown: California drought declared over
By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
California’s drought is over. But don’t get carried away.
That was the basic message in a proclamation issued today by Gov. Jerry Brown, which rescinds a statewide drought emergency declaration adopted in February 2009 by his predecessor.
The proclamation was timed with the latest statewide snow survey by the state Department of Water Resources, which found California’s snowpack at 165 percent of average for the season.
The snowpack provides one-third of all the water consumed in California by people, businesses and farms. Most of the rest comes from groundwater.