Friant-kern users to get 30% water allocation
Down from 100 percent this time last year
What a difference a year makes.
Central Valley water users were likely bracing for bad news regarding water supply in the Friant-kern Canal this year, and Tuesday’s announcement by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which manages how much water flows through a large part of California, did not fail to deliver.
The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) announced the initial 2018 water supply allocations for many Central Valley Project contractors, which are based on a conservative estimate of the amount of water that will be available for delivery to water users throughout the state, and reflects current reservoir storages, precipitation and snowpack in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada.
The Friant Division, which is in charge of the Friant-kern Canal that provides water to several local irrigation districts around Porterville, is allocated 30 percent of Class 1 supplies, which is based on Millerton Lake storage and current and forecasted water conditions in the upper San Joaquin River Basin.
The same allocation last year was 100 percent, with permission to take additional water while supplies lasted.
The BOR has set the initial allocation for South-of-delta contractors (primarily in the western San Joaquin Valley) at 20 percent of their contract total.
Eastside water service contractors (Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District and Stockton East Water District) will receive 100 percent of their contract total.
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.
But 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, BOR’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.”
Jason Phillips, CEO of Friant Water Authority who operates the Friantkern Canal, echoed that sentiment in a statement on the allocations, saying, “Had storage projects that were recommended almost 20 years ago been constructed by now, almost all CVP contractors
would be much closer to a full supply this year.”
Phillips added that conservative allocations were “not unexpected” given the low rainfall this year, but he is concerned that Central Valley growers will once again have to turn to pumping groundwater to irrigate crops.
“Groundwater pumping will exacerbate the already-severe subsidence in the Valley including along the Friant-kern Canal,” said Phillips. “Portions of the canal have already lost about 60 percent of their designed conveyance capacity due to subsidence largely caused by water users outside of the Friant Division. Conveyance capacity problems in the San Joaquin Valley were a major problem in 2017, one of the wettest years on record, when
300,000 acre-feet of water went undelivered because of the Friant-kern Canal restrictions.”
At the height of the most recent drought in 2014 and 2015, Friant Division contractors received no water deliveries from the canal.
“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.”
Should conditions change, CVP supplies could also change. BOR will continue working with the DWR, federal
and state fishery agencies, contractors, and others to effectively carry out project operations and improve water supply consistent with all applicable laws.
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.