A new study from California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) has found that Lake Oroville is shrinking.

Water levels at the state’s second largest reservoir are in a much better place than they were two years ago, when severe drought gripped much of California. Two back-to-back wet winters, accompanied by atmospheric rivers, have supplemented the water levels at many California reservoirs and contributed greatly to their recovery, although the atmospheric rivers also caused flooding and mudslides.

Atmospheric rivers are a “long, narrow region in the atmosphere—like rivers in the sky—that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Despite Lake Oroville’s recovery, water officials recently discovered that its capacity was shrinking and that the lake had lost 3 percent of capacity since it was created in the 1960s.

“DWR utilized the latest terrain-mapping technology to determine if there have been any changes in the lake’s volume to optimize how the reservoir is operated and ensure accuracy in estimating California’s water supply availability,” a DWR webpage said.

“What resulted were highly detailed 3D topographic terrain models of the bottom of the lake, which DWR engineers used to calculate a new storage capacity of 3,424,753 acre-feet, approximately 3 percent less than previously estimated,” the webpage added.

The DWR attributed the loss to “weather swings and almost six decades of service.” Newsweek reached out to the DWR by email for comment.

Despite the loss, DWR officials said Lake Oroville remains the state’s second largest reservoir, behind only Lake Shasta.

“Having updated storage capacity data allows us to operate Lake Oroville in a more efficient manner,” said John Yarbrough, the DWR’s deputy director of the State Water Project.

“It ensures we are providing adequate flood storage protection during winter months and accurately accounts for the state’s water supply, which is especially important as we experience climate change-driven weather extremes,” he said.

During the winter months, water officials occasionally release water from the reservoir to provide flood mitigation for downstream communities, such as in February when atmospheric rivers brought a deluge of rain to the area. Once California enters its dry season, officials transition to retaining as much water as possible in the reservoir.

Lake Oroville’s water levels began rising last December and reached full capacity in May. The levels have been steadily declining over the past few weeks as California enters its dry season.

However, the lake is in a much better state than it was in 2022. As of Tuesday, Lake Oroville’s water levels were at 887 feet, only 12 feet below full pool of 900 feet. During the summer of 2022, the water levels were at only 750 feet.

Projected changes to California workers’ comp claims frequency and severity due to industry mix of employment are negligible through 2026, while employment in most industries fully recovered from the initial pandemic related changes by the end of 2022, a new report from the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California shows.

WCIRB this week released an update to the Impact of Economic Changes on California Workers’ Compensation report.

The report shows that while employment in hospitality fully recovered in 2023, retail employment is expected to remain below 2019 levels until 2026. The report forecasts construction employment to grow moderately in 2024 and 2025 and slowly in 2026, similar to the overall growth.

Healthcare employment fell slightly in 2020, then rebounded in 2021. It is projected to grow modestly through 2026, according to WCRIB.

“Unemployment is forecast to increase slightly in 2024 and then decrease slightly, remaining at historically low levels,” the report shows. “WCIRB research has found that increases in unemployment are correlated with decreases in indemnity claim frequency. Given the current forecast of changes in the unemployment rate is small, there would also be a small impact on changes in indemnity claim frequency.”

Claim frequency rose substantially in 2021 due to the mix of employment by industry, an increase largely driven by the return of hospitality employment, but modest industry mix impacts on claim frequency and severity are projected to continue and offset each other, yielding negligible pure premium impacts through 2026, according to WCIRB.

Wages overall are forecast to increase strongly in 2024, then return to a lower increase in 2025 and 2026.

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California
Workers’ Compensation