California's historic snowpack and the runoff's potential impact on farmland
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- After historic snowpack levels in California, the concern now is for how fast the snow melts and the rate of runoff's impact on farmland.
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State officials say the real challenge now as we head into spring and summer, is significant flooding.
"The department is very focused on the entire Central Valley, including the Sacramento Valley," Karla Nemeth, the director for the California Dept. of Water Resources said.
Already, Fresno and Tulare Counties have been impacted by flooding after a series storms.
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The Department of Water Resources says currently there are two locations expected to reach flood stage within this next five days - both are within San Joaquin Valley.
David Rizzardo, the manager for DWR's hydrology branch, said how runoff comes is largely dependent on how warm and for how long.
"Right now the climate prediction center, really it's unsure which way to go. Is it going to be a warm and dry spring or is it going to be a cold and wet spring?" Rizzardo said.
In Monterey, the flooding from snowmelt and the rate of runoff is not as much of a concern.
Juan Hidalgo serves as the Agricultural Commissioner for Monterey County.
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"Fortunately for us, we don't rely on snowpack for water here - a lot of our water is groundwater," Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo says March's levee break and the parade of storms devastated approximately 20,000 acres out of county's 300,000.
He says they're still surveying damage costs but preliminary estimates are up to $450 million.
"I think it's good to keep that in perspective that we shouldn't be necessarily worried about whether or not there's going to be a shortage of commodities.
I think we're not at that point, you know it's too early to say," Hidalgo said.
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