A decade ago, when one of California’s worst droughts almost dried up Lake Mendocino, dam operators at the reservoir 125 miles north of San Francisco faced criticism for not storing more water in rainier times.
But it was hardly their fault. The amount of water held and released at the reservoir, which serves Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties, had been dictated by old, rigid federal rules for reservoirs, to make sure they keep enough empty space for capturing floodwaters.
This week, after years of advocacy and experimentation, officials at Lake Mendocino will celebrate the reservoir’s status as the first reservoir in the nation to get the go-ahead to adopt a flexible, forecast-based operations policy. The lake’s new water control manual, reliant on modern-day weather models, and notably an understanding of atmospheric rivers, gives dam managers the ability to stash additional water, which could boost reserves sometimes 20% or more when the conditions are right…