Dear Governor: There’s a drought; please help!

So, let’s see if we got this right. California is in its second straight year of drought, with no end in sight. The state has received only about 50 percent of average precipitation in the current water year and its major reservoirs are only about half full.

Sean de Guzman, with the state Department of Water Resources, reported that this year is tied for the third-driest year on record.

But despite pleas from local lawmakers, farmers and water agency managers, state officials refuse to declare a “drought emergency” because these dire conditions and the state’s unpreparedness have not reached their idea of a disaster level.

That’s ridiculous. Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth recently told the state Board of Food and Agriculture that Gov. Gavin Newsom is not likely to declare a drought emergency because the powers that come with such a declaration are not needed to manage through the end of the year.

“If next year is very dry,” AgriPulse reported her telling Ag Board members, “we will absolutely be in an emergency drought proclamation.”

But the State Water Resources Control Board was singing a much more worried tune, when it advised water users to prepare for drought impacts statewide. It said 95 percent of California is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought. Reservoir and groundwater levels had fallen “significantly below average.”

Kern County’s allocation from the State Water Project has been reduced to just about 5 percent of a full allocation. This is the third-tightest distribution in the history of the State Water Project.

“With each passing day, the drought gets worse,” wrote Royce Fast, president of the Kern County Water Agency Board, in a recent opinion article published in The Californian.

State Sen. Shannon Grove and Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, and Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, joined other state legislators in pressing Newsom to declare a drought emergency now to avoid food-supply and drinking-water disruptions.

They noted that the State Water Project must be able to supply essential water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. More than $7 billion in annual farm revenues and 85,000 jobs are at stake.

“Sacramento’s decision to reduce water allocation to our essential farmers, who have continued to feed our state throughout the pandemic, is unacceptable and immediate relief is needed,” Fong stated in a press release. He blamed the state’s lack of planning and flawed water policy for the crisis.

California is not alone in struggling with an ongoing drought. An estimated 49 percent of the contiguous U.S. — notably Western states — is experiencing severe drought conditions. California and Colorado governors recently committed millions of dollars to prepare for the likelihood of a devastating wildfire season aggravated by drought conditions across the region.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state’s last “drought emergency” in 2014, during the devastating 2012-2016 five-year drought. In the years that have followed, there have been a few wet years and a few dry years. But as we see the effects of climate change, it is apparent that the wet years are the exception, rather than the rule.

Kern County Farm Bureau President John C. Moore III stressed that waiting for another year of drought to proclaim a disaster would be waiting too long, because “if we can get in front of this for a year, it’s going to help us big-time.”

A declaration of a “drought emergency” gives flexibility to water managers as they move water around the states to balance needs. It also encourages use of urban and rural water conservation initiatives.

Some rightly fear that the declaration could dangerously shift the balance between the state’s environmental and economic goals.

But that’s where leadership comes into play. Certainly, the powers given with a “drought emergency” declaration can be limited to both protect the environment — which includes, for example, protecting California’s fish population — and to provide the life-sustaining water supplies to cities and farms.

Pretending a drought this year is “manageable” in hopes that next year miraculously will be “wet” is a foolish strategy. Actually, it is no strategy.