Too Early To Tell How Big a Dent Storm Has Made in Drought

Picture from  Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster

In response to my question about how big a dent today's storm has made in the drought, Monrovia Interim Director of Public Works Alex Tachiki said it's a bit early to tell. Here's what he wrote ...

"Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have an answer on how big of a dent this recent storm or even the last few storms until later this month or early February. Typically, the water from these types of storms take at least 30 days to infiltrate or percolate into the groundwater table. Since Monrovia gets our water through what's known as the Main San Gabriel Basin, the agency that oversees the basin is the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster (https://www.watermaster.org/). Their website will update the current level of what they refer to as the "key well", which is where our water comes from. The key well level gives us a local snapshot into how well we are doing with the current drought conditions.

"From a statewide perspective, the Governor's Office and the State Water Resources Control Board would be the governing agencies. Since the various parts of the State are experiencing different types of storms, it is hard to say if drought conditions will improve for the long-term or even medium-term. Obviously, this amount of rain will be good for the short-term but we've experienced conditions like this where the year starts off well with several storms and then goes very dry."

- Brad Haugaard