California Ag Network

Tag: Water Supply

  • MID Approves 2018 Irrigation Season

    Merced, Calif., (February 28, 2018) – Following a six-week public process, the Merced Irrigation District (MID) Board of Directors approved both the start of irrigation season and the water rate for the coming year.

    “So far, the winter weather has not been favorable to local agriculture,” said MID General Manager John Sweigard after the meeting. “We want to ensure that we are being as responsive to our growers as possible. We want them to have the water they need as quickly as possible.”

    Water orders can be placed immediately. The first deliveries are expected to occur around March 1. There will be no restrictions on allocations this year and water will be made available to neighboring Sphere of Influence (SOI) lands. Those are lands just outside the District boundaries but still within the eastern Merced groundwater basin.
    The in-District water rate for the coming season was set at $40 per acre foot for all MID growers. Neighboring SOI growers will have access to surface water at $100 per acre foot.

    Today’s decisions were made following nearly two hours of open discussion between the MID Board of Directors, the MID Advisory Committee and other interested members of the public.

    Options for ordering water include:

    • Orders may be placed anytime online at mercedid.org.
    • Orders may be placed anytime using MID’s automated water ordering system at (866) 825-2475. During weekday business hours, orders may also be placed by calling MID Customer Service at (209) 722-2720 or toll-free at (800) 750-2720.
    • Orders may be placed in person during weekday business hours at MID’s office, located at 744 W. 20th Street in Merced.

    WATER SUPPLY – Following five years of drought, Lake McClure experienced one of the wettest years on record last winter. The reservoir easily filled to its maximum capacity and remains at its maximum-allowed operating level at
    this time of year. That’s about 67 percent capacity or 667,000 acre feet. In discussing the water outlook for the year, MID opted to make all water available to growers for the coming season without restriction.

    GROUNDWATER BENEFITS – Providing surface water from Lake McClure to area growers provides a crucial benefit to area groundwater. MID and SOI growers will not have to depend on groundwater pumping for irrigation. Additionally, MID’s operations result each year in up to 140,000 acre feet of groundwater replenishment as water flows through unlined waterways and MID-operated groundwater recharge basins. Groundwater management has become a top priority in the region since the state approved the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. MID is one of multiple urban and rural partners working jointly to address groundwater challenges in eastern Merced County.

  • Reclamation Announces Initial Water Supply Allocation For The Central Valley Project

    Sacramento, Calif., (February 27, 2018) – The Bureau of Reclamation today announced the initial 2018 water supply allocation for many Central Valley Project contractors. This allocation is based on a conservative estimate of the amount of water that will be available for delivery to CVP water users and reflects current reservoir storages, precipitation and snowpack in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada.

    The 2017 water year was the wettest on record for most of northern California and CVP reservoirs were essentially full for the first time in five years; however, precipitation so far this year has been far below average. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reports that as of February 15, the statewide average snow water equivalent in the Sierra Nevada was 4.3 inches (20 percent of the historical average), and rainfall is currently at approximately 60 percent of the historical average for the northern Central Valley.

    “Despite the historic rainfall last year, California’s lack of sufficient water storage forces us to operate on a year-to-year basis. The amount we can store in our reservoirs is not enough to get us through these very dry years,” said David Murillo, Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Regional Director. “Given what we know today, and what we see in the forecast, we must be very conservative with our allocation. If this lack of rain and snow continues, we could very well be right back in drought operations. A situation like this really underscores the need for more storage in California.”

    “There are many factors we have to consider when determining CVP allocations – hydrologic conditions, reservoir storage levels, water quality requirements, water rights priority, contractual obligations, and endangered species protections,” Murillo said. “All of these are taken into account with the goal of exercising all authorities available to us to maximize water supplies.”

    Given storage of CVP water in San Luis, Millerton, and New Melones Reservoirs, as well as conservative assumptions regarding Delta operations over the next couple of months, Reclamation is able to provide an initial allocation to South-of-Delta, Friant, and Eastside contractors of the CVP. Regarding the remainder of the allocations to CVP contractors, although the CVP is operationally integrated, each individual reservoir has unique and specific operational criteria that must also be met. Due to the extremely low snowpack levels and associated runoff forecasts, combined with the uncertainty in the ability to manage Shasta Reservoir in a way that will provide adequate temperatures for the protection of endangered salmon species in the Sacramento River throughout the summer and fall in 2018, Reclamation will not be providing an initial allocation of water to North-of-Delta Contractors at this time. The integrated nature of the operation of Shasta and Folsom Reservoirs requires the same approach for American River and In-Delta Contractors.

    Reclamation will be working with these contractors, as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), during the next week to ensure that water will continue to be delivered to meet public health and safety needs for Municipal and industrial (M&I) contractors and appropriate minimal needs of agricultural contractors during the month of March. This approach will allow Reclamation, NMFS, and the contractors to refine operating scenarios based on updated snowpack and runoff forecasts in March, and develop appropriate plans for dealing with the extremely dry conditions should they continue.

    Should conditions change, CVP supplies could also change. Reclamation will continue working with the DWR, federal and state fishery agencies, our contractors, and others to effectively carry out project operations and improve water supply consistent with all applicable laws. Based on the information outlined above, Reclamation is announcing the initial allocation to the following:

    South-of-Delta Contractors

    • Agricultural water service contractors South-of-Delta are allocated 20 percent of their contract total.
    • I water service contractors South-of-Delta are allocated the greater of 70 percent of their historic use or public health and safety needs.

    Friant Division Contractors

    • Based upon Millerton Lake storage and current and forecasted hydrologic conditions in the Upper San Joaquin River Basin, the Friant Division contractors are allocated 30 percent of Class 1 supplies.
    • For the San Joaquin River Restoration Project, the current best forecast developed jointly by SJRRP and the South-Central California Area Office now indicates a “Critical-High” water year type.

    Eastside Water Service Contractors

    • Eastside water service contractors (Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District and Stockton East Water District) will receive 100 percent of their contract total.

    On February 15, Reclamation notified the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors, San Joaquin Settlement Contractors, and Refuge Contractors that the forecasted inflow to Shasta Lake is currently greater than 3.2 million acre-feet and we are not currently in a “Shasta Critical” year as that term is defined in their contracts.

    Current dry conditions and the dry forecast underscore the need for all Californians to be conservative in their water use this spring, Murillo said. Without significant rain and snow this spring, conditions could worsen.

    As the water year progresses, changes in hydrology and opportunities to deliver additional water will influence future allocations. Water supply updates will be made as appropriate and posted at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvp-water/index.html.

    For additional information, please contact the Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TTY 800-877-8339) or email mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov.

  • Real Facts on Water Supply

    Fresno, Calif., (October 30, 2017) – “There’s not enough water in California.” It’s a common refrain from anti- farming activists who are using that argument to promote restrictions on agricultural water use. Although the state’s water supply is at a high level, there is no doubt that when the supply is reduced, the activists will return to their e ort to restrict water to Westlands and other agricultural districts. And they will rely on the same misinformation to make the case that California’s water supply is insu cient to provide enough water for urban, agricultural, and environmental water use.

    These same activists claim that agriculture is using 80% of the state’s water resources and that as a result, policies such as land retirement, crop dictation, and groundwater restrictions need to be imposed to protect urban and environmental water use.

    Westlands and other agriculture districts have pushed back against the misinformation but this false narrative continues to have an impact on the debates that shape policy-making.

    For that reason, the Westlands’ public a airs sta is accelerating e orts to educate policy-makers and the public about water supply allocations. We intend to show that when our water is properly managed, the state has adequate supply to for residential, agricultural and environmental uses. While the activists want to discount a substantial amount of the water supply to arrive at a high usage number for agriculture, Westlands will be using accurate numbers that show how much water is available for all uses.

    Here’s the di erence between “fake news” and reality: the Water Agency Inc. reports that between October 1, 2016 and August 6, 2017, the water supply and allocation system experienced the following:

    • 52,102,700AF of water owed into the Delta and was available for the environment, residential, and agricultural use
    • 2,247,400AF (which equals 3% of the Delta in ow) owed to Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors and 2,931,100AF (which equals 5.6% of the Delta in ow) owed to State Water Project (SWP) contractors.
    • 46,742,500AF (which equals 7% of the Delta in ow) owed to the ocean.

    Contrary to the claims of the activists, and despite experiencing almost NO water delivery restrictions in 2017 because of this year’s historic hydrology, almost 90% of the water that ows into the Delta ends up in the ocean.

    This is only one example of the ongoing e ort to provide a fact- based narrative to the public and decisionmakers. As a priority matter, Westlands will be educating policy-makers about the facts about agriculture and urban jobs that rely on a stable water supply.

    By Johnny Amaral, Deputy General Manager of External A airs Westlands Water District