A glimpse into 2021 indicates that AVEK will be able to meet customer demands for supplemental water supplies – mainly because of the Agency’s banking program.

AVEK is maintaining about 10 million gallons a day that goes through the geo-purification process. Regarding water quality, turbidity improved with cooler temperatures.

As of the Nov. 10, 2020 board meeting, General Manager Dwayne Chisam said that Northern California received some rain, but much smaller amounts fell in other areas of the state, so that rain had negligible impact on the upcoming year.

California received no precipitation in October.

It’s been a slow start heading into the water year. Reservoir levels are a little below average.

At the Oct. 27 AVEK board meeting, Chisam told Directors, “We’ve just completed the end of the water cycle. It’s been very dry up North. We’ve had three years of below average precipitation.”

At that time Lake Oroville was at about 43% of its total capacity and 72% of average. San Luis Reservoir was at 46% of total capacity and 89% of its average.

“We’re not in terrible shape.” However, another dry year could pose problems. The overwhelming majority of the state's eastern, central, and northern regions are experiencing drought conditions ranging from moderate to extreme, and most of its southwest region is abnormally dry, as illustrated by a drought monitoring map released on 11/25: