CALIFORNIA
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How it’s stored and moved for growing food Story by Ching Lee California would not be one of the world’s leading agricultural producers without its complex water system. Thanks to the Golden State’s dry Mediterranean climate, farmers here enjoy an almost year-round growing season, allowing them to grow more than 400 crops. Farmers owe much of this productivity to their ability to control when and how much water is applied to their crops. In addition to using water pumped from the ground, California farms irrigate, on average, more than 9 million acres of cropland with water from rivers, lakes and reservoirs, according to the California Department of Water Resources. During the rainy season, the state captures and saves some precipitation in reservoirs, or man-made lakes. Rain is also stored in the form of snowpack. As it melts, the runoff enters California streams and rivers, supplying water during the summer months.
SNOWPACK in the Sierra Nevada mountains acts as a natural reservoir
DAMS create man-made lakes, or reservoirs
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July/August 2023
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