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June 18, 2021

Drought saps Calif. reservoirs as hot summer looms

  • State officials may have to shut down a major power plant for the first time ever because of low water levels.
    • By ADAM BEAM
    Associated Press

    OROVILLE, Calif. — Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation's crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires.

    But the mighty lake — a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible — is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer.


     
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