 Siskio County, June 13th, 2014. At first glance, this stretch of northern California looks green and lush, full of life. The Shasta River meanders 58 miles from the Klamath through Siskio County and Lake Shastina, supplying water to everything and everyone along the way. But take a closer look, talk to the people who live up here, and soon you'll discover that water is drying up and may soon disappear. That scenario is playing out in a growing number of cities and towns throughout California. Three years of little or no rain prompted Governor Jerry Brown to declare a drought state of emergency last January. We are in an unprecedented, very serious situation. The city of Montague is now facing the very real possibility of having no water to drink. We have about another two months of water to get the city through before we would have to look at other water conservation measures. Montague gets its water from Lake Shastina, also known as Duanel Reservoir. But it's not much of one now. On this day in mid-June, the level was just 4,700 acre feet, a fraction of the 35,000 acre feet average. Snowpack was zero this year, so runoff from Mount Shasta was non-existent. Montague is a microcosm of what's happening throughout the state of California during this drought crisis. Only it's worse for this town's 1,400 residents. This is the first time in the history of Montague that we've been in a drought situation, so it's a very, very new experience for us. June 13th, Montague Mayor Jane Keller welcomed California's drought task force for a critical government-to-government meeting. Today's meeting in Montague is the fifth regional site visit that the drought task force has done around the state. Chief Deputy Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Nancy Ward, brought the task force team to meet with government leaders from six northern California counties. We really want to hear from you. We wanted to hear firsthand what they're seeing as the concerns so that we can understand if we're seeing gaps that we can take back to the task force, the greater task force, and ensure that we're trying to close those gaps as easily as we possibly can. It has been a tremendous effort of city, county, state, federal and tribal government representatives coming together to deal with a very complex situation. County leaders got an opportunity to shed light on their predicament, giving a firsthand account of and lending perspective to the realities in their own communities. Obviously the drought has terrible consequences for people, for ag, for fish and wildlife because we're in an incredibly serious drought. But people are stepping up to come up with creative solutions in a neighborly sort of a way, which is to say, how can I help my neighbor by running a pipe, by sharing a water right, by helping drill a well? This is the heart of the project right here. Siskiw County gave the task force a tour of the location of a planned $1.1 million pipeline project that will divert water from the Shasta River to Montague. We have worked with different water rights owners who have displayed an interest in helping the city of Montague. At least putting in another well, some place to pump the cool water into the Shasta for the water to come here and then get transported correctly, correct? Right. And so, you know, long term, you're absolutely right. But there's likelihood just related to construction timing. But what really drove the message home for the task force? The nearly empty reservoir. It's 85% below the annual average. Rings of water levels past are like a tree's growth rings, only here there's stunning evidence of the evaporation of their water supply. The Shasta River that runs through here connects with Big Springs about six miles, river miles downstream. Drought Task Force leaders watch, listen and learn about what factors are leading to this crisis and the effects they're having on towns and their citizens downstream. But what if anything can be done about it? That's the priority and focus of the DTF. I think we got some questions answered, but I think also it has shown a light that we may need to do some follow-up meetings in that area. What this community did is work together, local government, state government, the tribes, and they've all come together to solve the problem of drinking water for this particular community. That's what we want to replicate up and down the state of California. Cal OES logo, Governor's Office of Emergency Services. For more information visit www.caloes.ca.gov and drought.ca.gov.