California drought: Jerry Brown declares emergency, asks public to ration water

With the edge of Folsom Lake, Calif., more than 100 yards away, Gina, 8, left, and Sydney, 9, Gerety walk on rocks that are usually at the waters edge, Thursday Jan. 9, 2014. Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared a drought emergency in California, as the state faces a serious water shortage. Reservoirs in the state have dipped to historic lows after one of the driest calendar years on record.
Kurtis Alexander
11:02 AM
(01-17) 10:01 PST San Francisco -- Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday officially declared a drought emergency in California, asking residents to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent and committing to bolster the state's dwindling water supplies with better management and federal assistance.
The order, announced at a news conference at the governor's San Francisco office, comes as the state is gripped by a third consecutive year of dry weather.
Rivers are running low. Snowpack is meager. And communities across California are worried about having sufficient water for homes, businesses and farmland. The dry weather also has increased the threat of wildfire, with record acreage burning this month, including a 1,700-acre fire that continues to char the hills above Los Angeles.
With the emergency declaration, Brown said he would make it easier for communities to transfer water from wetter parts of the state to dryer areas. He also said he would seek federal assistance, though he didn't detail that effort.
"We are in an unprecedented and very serious situation," Brown said. "It's important to awaken all Californians to the serious matter of drought and the lack of rain."
While Brown said he wanted residents to join the conservation push and reduce their water consumption by 20 percent, the reductions remain voluntary. He said he would continue to monitor the weather and would consider mandatory restrictions if things don't improve.
Friday's declaration is the third statewide drought declaration statewide since 1987, the previous coming between 2007 and 2009.
An earlier declaration came during the 1976-77 drought, amid Brown's first stint as governor.
This January, most of California has seen little or no rainfall. The dry spell follows a record-dry 2013 in much of the state, and climate models suggest rain will remain scant during the next few months, setting up California for its third dry winter in a row.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada snowpack, vital to filling the state's sprawling system of reservoirs, measured just 17 percent of normal this week.
Already, a handful of water agencies have imposed restrictions on consumers while others - including some in the Bay Area - are asking for voluntary water reductions. Sacramento is the biggest community to enact requirements so far, ordering consumers Tuesday to scale back water use by 20 to 30 percent.
Few areas are threatened as much as the Central Valley, where farmers dependent on state and federal water allocations face among their lowest allotments in years. The State Water Project estimated in November that it would fill only 5 percent of the water requests it has received from contracting agencies.
Federal officials offered some support Thursday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated 27 of California's 58 counties - alongside portions of 10 other states - as natural disaster areas because of the drought, which means farmers can get emergency low-interest loans.
While projections released his week from the National Weather Service don't offer much hope of improving conditions, forecasters note that two months remain of the wet season - plenty of time to make up for lost ground.
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kalexander9sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander