Drought has ended, Vacaville declares.
VACAVILLE — Lake Berryessa rose 40 feet in two months during record-breaking rainfall in Solano County – and with the city’s water supply fully replenished, a resolution declaring the drought over won unanimous City Council approval Tuesday.
“The drought has pretty much gone away,” Royce Cunningham, city director of utilities, told the council.
He described the rainfall during January and February as “off the charts.” The city will receive 100 percent of its allocation from the state water project as well as the Solano water project, Cunningham said.
The Sierra snowpack, he said, is at 164 percent of normal.
“While the city can return to normal water use patterns, the state is maintaining regulations that keep prohibitions against wasteful water use in place,” a city staff report said.
Washing down driveways and sidewalks, as well as using a hose without a control nozzle to wash a vehicle are among prohibitions the state will likely keep in place permanently, the report said.
Gov.
Jerry Brown issued an executive order April 7 declaring the drought over in all counties except Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne, the city said.
Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.