SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Dried mud and a stranded buoy on the lakebed at Lake Oroville, which stood at 33% full and 40% of historical average when this photograph was taken on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 in Oroville, California. (Photo: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Climate-Linked Drought Leads to First Ever Shutdown of California Hydropower Plant
"Climate change is worsening California's water crisis."
Aug 06, 2021
California officials blamed the climate crisis-fueled drought and earlier lack of snowmelt in announcing Thursday that, for the first time ever, historic low water levels forced the hydropower plant at Lake Oroville to be taken offline.
The development comes amid a massive drought gripping the western United States, with entire state of California experiencing some level of drought.
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought."
Water levels at Lake Oroville, the state's second largest reservoir, have been dropping for months, prompting it to be called "the shocking face of California's drought."
The lake's depletion led to the long anticipated shutdown of the Hyatt plant--completed in 1967 and able to power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity.
The Chico Enterprise-Record reported that the lake on Tuesday hit its lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level--a level that threatens the plant's ability to turn turbines. "The lake level has dropped a stunning 250 feet in the past two years," noted the San Jose Mercury News.
Department of Water Resources (DWR) director Karla Nemeth announced the news Thursday in a statement urging Californians to conserve water.
"DWR State Water Project operations managers have taken the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline due to falling lake levels," she said. "This is the first time Hyatt Powerplant has gone offline as a result of low lake levels. However, DWR anticipated this moment, and the state has planned for its loss in both water and grid management."
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought," Nemeth added. "California and much of the western part of the United States are experiencing the impacts of accelerated climate change including record-low reservoir levels due to dramatically reduced runoff this spring."
The state now "has to lean on other power options as it suffers the impacts of climate change," Politico reported. "While the state can import additional supply, that has become less reliable as major wildfires threaten Western transmission lines, as was the case last month in Oregon during a heat wave in California."
According to the California Energy Commission, in 2020, electric generation from nuclear, large hydroelectric, and renewables made for 51% of its in-state generation, down from to 57% in 2019. "The change is directly attributable to the significantly reduced hydroelectric generation, some 44% lower than 2019 generation levels, as dry conditions returned to the state."
Water resources expert and Pacific Institute founder Peter Gleick remarked on the milestone event in a Friday tweet.
"During the worst two-year (1976-77) five-year (2012-16), & six-year (1987-92) droughts on record," wrote Gleick, "Oroville Dam's powerplant never shut down for lack of water."
"It's shut now," he said. "Climate change is worsening California's water crisis."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
California officials blamed the climate crisis-fueled drought and earlier lack of snowmelt in announcing Thursday that, for the first time ever, historic low water levels forced the hydropower plant at Lake Oroville to be taken offline.
The development comes amid a massive drought gripping the western United States, with entire state of California experiencing some level of drought.
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought."
Water levels at Lake Oroville, the state's second largest reservoir, have been dropping for months, prompting it to be called "the shocking face of California's drought."
The lake's depletion led to the long anticipated shutdown of the Hyatt plant--completed in 1967 and able to power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity.
The Chico Enterprise-Record reported that the lake on Tuesday hit its lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level--a level that threatens the plant's ability to turn turbines. "The lake level has dropped a stunning 250 feet in the past two years," noted the San Jose Mercury News.
Department of Water Resources (DWR) director Karla Nemeth announced the news Thursday in a statement urging Californians to conserve water.
"DWR State Water Project operations managers have taken the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline due to falling lake levels," she said. "This is the first time Hyatt Powerplant has gone offline as a result of low lake levels. However, DWR anticipated this moment, and the state has planned for its loss in both water and grid management."
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought," Nemeth added. "California and much of the western part of the United States are experiencing the impacts of accelerated climate change including record-low reservoir levels due to dramatically reduced runoff this spring."
The state now "has to lean on other power options as it suffers the impacts of climate change," Politico reported. "While the state can import additional supply, that has become less reliable as major wildfires threaten Western transmission lines, as was the case last month in Oregon during a heat wave in California."
According to the California Energy Commission, in 2020, electric generation from nuclear, large hydroelectric, and renewables made for 51% of its in-state generation, down from to 57% in 2019. "The change is directly attributable to the significantly reduced hydroelectric generation, some 44% lower than 2019 generation levels, as dry conditions returned to the state."
Water resources expert and Pacific Institute founder Peter Gleick remarked on the milestone event in a Friday tweet.
"During the worst two-year (1976-77) five-year (2012-16), & six-year (1987-92) droughts on record," wrote Gleick, "Oroville Dam's powerplant never shut down for lack of water."
"It's shut now," he said. "Climate change is worsening California's water crisis."
California officials blamed the climate crisis-fueled drought and earlier lack of snowmelt in announcing Thursday that, for the first time ever, historic low water levels forced the hydropower plant at Lake Oroville to be taken offline.
The development comes amid a massive drought gripping the western United States, with entire state of California experiencing some level of drought.
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought."
Water levels at Lake Oroville, the state's second largest reservoir, have been dropping for months, prompting it to be called "the shocking face of California's drought."
The lake's depletion led to the long anticipated shutdown of the Hyatt plant--completed in 1967 and able to power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity.
The Chico Enterprise-Record reported that the lake on Tuesday hit its lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level--a level that threatens the plant's ability to turn turbines. "The lake level has dropped a stunning 250 feet in the past two years," noted the San Jose Mercury News.
Department of Water Resources (DWR) director Karla Nemeth announced the news Thursday in a statement urging Californians to conserve water.
"DWR State Water Project operations managers have taken the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline due to falling lake levels," she said. "This is the first time Hyatt Powerplant has gone offline as a result of low lake levels. However, DWR anticipated this moment, and the state has planned for its loss in both water and grid management."
"This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought," Nemeth added. "California and much of the western part of the United States are experiencing the impacts of accelerated climate change including record-low reservoir levels due to dramatically reduced runoff this spring."
The state now "has to lean on other power options as it suffers the impacts of climate change," Politico reported. "While the state can import additional supply, that has become less reliable as major wildfires threaten Western transmission lines, as was the case last month in Oregon during a heat wave in California."
According to the California Energy Commission, in 2020, electric generation from nuclear, large hydroelectric, and renewables made for 51% of its in-state generation, down from to 57% in 2019. "The change is directly attributable to the significantly reduced hydroelectric generation, some 44% lower than 2019 generation levels, as dry conditions returned to the state."
Water resources expert and Pacific Institute founder Peter Gleick remarked on the milestone event in a Friday tweet.
"During the worst two-year (1976-77) five-year (2012-16), & six-year (1987-92) droughts on record," wrote Gleick, "Oroville Dam's powerplant never shut down for lack of water."
"It's shut now," he said. "Climate change is worsening California's water crisis."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.