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Most people know that California is in its fourth year of one of the most serious droughts the state has ever experienced. This is not just a California problem; many parts of Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, and Oregon are also experiencing a prolonged drought.
However, many people do not know that California and other western states experienced a drought almost 40 years ago that was as bad as this one. The good news is that California is weathering this drought far better than it did 40 years ago—even though the state has almost doubled its population. There are many reasons for this good news.
First, let’s go back to 1976 and 1977 when I was living in the state. Precipitation was extremely low for two consecutive years, which led to a water crisis. An emergency water pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was constructed to deliver water to residents just north of San Francisco; each person was allocated 44 gallons of water per day per person, down from the usual 100 gallons. But the impact of the crisis reached far beyond California as agricultural activities in some parts of the Central Valley ceased temporarily. Remember, California is the leading agricultural state in the country—so the drought affected the availability and costs of scores of agricultural products nationally.