TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

During recent conversations around town, several constituents have raised red flags about how little snow we have on the mountains above the Valley this winter. We have clearly not received anywhere near the same level of snow as years past. Even state water officials have started sounding the alarms by calling the current snowpack "among the driest for the date on record."

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) recently publicized that the snowpack's statewide water content was at only 19 percent of normal. To be so far below the average is certainly troubling. According to DWR, about one-third of the water that California homes and farms need comes from exactly this source: melted mountain snow.

Over a century ago, Mark Twain put it very simply when he noted that "the solution to our water problems is more rain." Sadly, record low snow on our mountains this winter should reinforce in all of us --especially for lawmakers in Sacramento --that we must resolve California's broken water system. The system was built when our population was still under 20 million, though we now have almost double that many living here in California today.

Of course, it is not a question of if we will have another drought, just when.

Last year, I stood at the Friant Dam where I discussed the need for upgraded water infrastructure and storage improvements. Every year for the past three decades, we have been releasing about 450,000 acre feet of water to the ocean --about four years' worth of water supply for a city the size of Bakersfield. Just last year, though, Friant sent 1.3 million acre feet of water right into the ocean -- almost triple the annual average. Had we already built the needed infrastructure to store all of this water, we would now have enough water to meet Bakersfield's needs for a decade.

In order to increase the state's water supply reliability and restore the Delta, I introduced SB 250 to ensure that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is completed on time and delivers the water that 25 million Californians throughout the state and countless farms right here in the Central Valley desperately need. Beyond the 129,000 jobs that the project will create, SB 250 -- the California Reliable Water Supply Act -- will ensure that dry years and the likelihood of a devastating earthquake in the Delta region no longer bring to mind doomsday scenarios that could cripple the state and local economy.

We cannot afford to wait for another devastating drought or natural disaster to force us to finally act and solve our water infrastructure problems. We must remain engaged by supporting a water bond, SB 250 and other common-sense measures that will provide California with a reliable source of water and the ability to then store that precious resource provided to us by Mother Nature.

-- State Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, is one of five local elected officials writing about their work in The Californian. These are Rubio's opinions, not necessarily The Californian's. Next Sunday: Assemblyman David Valadao, R-Hanford.