SACRAMENTO—Many farms in California’s Central Valley will have to do without federal water again this year unless big spring storms replenish the state’s woeful mountain snowpack.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s initial allocation, announced Feb. 27, set aside no water for agricultural land without senior water rights either north or south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as the snowpack remains less than 20 percent of normal.
Cities will get enough water to meet their health and safety needs or at least 25 percent of normal supplies, whichever is greater, and the bureau will meet with Friant Division contractors to determine what amount of water they’ll need for health and safety.
“Today’s picture is not a pretty one,” bureau Mid-Pacific Regional Director Davis Murillo told reporters in a conference call, adding that officials are bracing for a fourth straight year of drought.
“The rain events in December were encouraging, but the persistently dry weather (since then) underscores our need to plan for another critical year of drought,” he said.
Senior water rights holders along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers will receive some water but their allocations will be reduced, officials said. Last year they ended up with about 65 percent of their normal supplies.
In a dry year, senior rights holders must receive at least 75 percent of their contract amounts before more junior users begin receiving water. The water sent to senior contractors is determined by levels in Shasta Lake, which was at 57 percent of capacity and 79 percent of normal as of Feb. 26.
Officials noted that conditions could improve with nearly two months remaining in California’s rainy season, perhaps prompting increased supplies to urban users and potentially some water available for farms.
“This is our initial allocation based on what we know today,” said Pablo Arroyave, the bureau’s regional deputy manager. “We certainly hope that conditions will improve and the hydrology gets to average or above average in the next few months.”
But the zero-water allocation was no surprise to growers who’ve been facing the sinking feeling that water shutoffs that hampered their crops last year would be repeated because of the meager snowpack.
Farmers in the Westlands Water District who left thousands of acres unplanted or irrigated by pumping scarce ground water last summer know they’ll have to make the same tough choices this year, district spokeswoman Gayle Holeman told The Associated Press.
Still, California Citrus Mutual blasted the bureau’s announcement, complaining that “a massive amount” of water has been transferred away from entities south of the delta with no accountability for how changes in water usage have been made.
“We think the state and federal agencies and administrations have a policy that essentially destroys the food supply,” CCM president Joel Nelsen told the Capital Press. “We’ve got to be the only state and nation on earth setting policies that do that.”
Nelsen said about 50,000 acres in the state’s prime citrus belt in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties have no access to ground water. Some of them have been able to purchase water at $1,200 to $1,400 an acre-foot—which is 12 to 14 times higher than it was before the drought—but “I don’t know if they’ll be able to find that water (in the future), nor could they afford that water,” he said.
California Farm Bureau Federation president Paul Wenger asserts the announcement reinforces the need to move quickly on water projects authorized by Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond that passed in November, and on congressional reform of environmental laws.
“The CVP announcement is both saddening and maddening,” Wenger said in a statement. “It’s saddening because the continued cutoff of water will prolong the impact of water shortages on farmers, their employees and rural communities. It’s maddening because California still struggles to manage water wisely and flexibly, especially in dry years.”
Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, said in a statement the zero allocation will greatly affect the county’s $6.44 billion agriculture industry.
“This allocation will force farmers to idle a large amount of acreage and bulldoze crops, which would have generated jobs, created value-added food products that stimulate significant economic activity for the county and region, as well as a safe, wholesome, affordable food supply for consumers throughout the United States and abroad,” he said.
Farm groups complain that conditions are similar to those in the early 1990s, when farms south of the delta received some water despite the state having endured several years of drought. But much has changed since then, Murillo cautioned, including a population increase in the Sacramento Valley and more regulations to protect fish.
The bureau’s announcement comes as California’s Department of Water Resources is set to conduct its third manual snow survey of the season on March 3. Little new snow has fallen since surveys chief Frank Gehrke found just 2.3 inches of snow water equivalent at the Echo Summit station on Jan. 29, although a storm this weekend was expected to produce snow as low as 3,500 feet.
The agency has told State Water Project contractors they can expect 15 percent of normal supplies this year, though officials warned that more shutoffs and drastic measures could come if the Golden State doesn’t get significant amounts of rain and snow this winter and spring.
Forecasters have raised hopes for a wet March in parts of California, with periodic storms punctuating stretches of sunshine and balmy afternoon temperatures. But spring storms last year didn’t help farms south of the delta, as federal allocations remained at zero.
Source: www.capitalpress.com