NASA Water Scientist: California has just one year of water left

Berit Anderson

Berit Anderson Jun 15, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>NASA Water Scientist: California has just one year of water left</h1>
                <h2><p>Jay Famiglietti, "senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine", has a rather terrifying op-ed on LATimes.com today. He writes,

Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/berit-anderson-crosscut-com/">Berit Anderson</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Jay Famiglietti, "senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine<em>", </em><a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-drought-california-20150313-story.html?ref=cascadepbs.org">has a rather terrifying op-ed on LATimes.com today. </a>He writes,</p><p>Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.</p>
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Jay Famiglietti, "senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine", has a rather terrifying op-ed on LATimes.com today. He writes,

Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.

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By Berit Anderson

Berit Anderson was Managing Editor at Crosscut, following tech, culture, media and politics. She founded Crosscut's Community Idea Lab.   Previously community manager of the Tribune Company’