Read the transcript for this report below.
ELIZABETH ARAKELIAN, HOST: The re-emerged Tulare Lake recently reached its peak in size. And as KVPR’s Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado reports, new data now shows the lake is beginning to recede.
CRESENCIO RODRIGUEZ-DELGADO: Maps released by the state’s Department of Water Resources show that by the end of July, Tulare Lake will be a smaller version of what it is now. Tons of farmland will remain underwater, but the predicted shrinking of the lake is a new turn after the chaotic storms from winter and spring that refilled it. The lake could have grown to a bigger size, according to state agencies, but up to 66,000 acre-feet of water were diverted away from it. What’s left of the Sierra Nevada snow will begin to melt as the summer heat picks up — though that will send much lower flows to rivers than before, and none of it will reach the lakebed.
For KVPR News, I'm Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado
