DWR pegs initial allocation level at 20%
The Department of Water Resources released its initial projections for water allocations for 2017, which are down significantly from last year’s levels – but a lot can change before the final allocation levels are announced in May.
The initial report indicates that agencies participating in DWR’s State Water Project will only receive 20 percent of their requested water needs in 2017 if conditions stay the same as they are today. Winter storms over the next few months could play a large role in the final allocation levels.
“October’s storms and subsequent rainfall have brightened the picture, but we could still end up in a sixth year of drought,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin, in a press release. “Our unpredictable weather means that we must make conservation a California lifestyle.”
The press release said much of the water the state received during October’s heavy rainfall was soaked up by the drought-dried soil, but subsequent storms are expected to increase streams and reservoirs.
The 29 participating agencies, which includes Yuba City Public Works, requested a total of 4,172,786 acre-feet of water next year. If they only received 20 percent of that, DWR would provide about 839,376 acre-feet, according to DWR.
Due to an agreement with the state, Yuba City Public Works receives an additional 5 percent allocation because of its location north of the Delta.
Diana Langley, director of Yuba City Public Works, said the municipality is in a good position right now when it comes to available water because it has stored its excess allocations over the past few years. It has four different contracts for water that are pulled from during both the winter and summer seasons.
Last year, DWR provided participating agencies 60 percent of their water allocations, which Langley said helped Yuba City store some of the excess water in a storage bank. It currently has an accumulative carryover of 5,910 acre-feet of water in storage.
“An allocation of 25 percent is not great, but it’s not the worst we’ve had – like a few years ago (2014) when there was only an allocation of 5 percent,” Langley said. “The fact that we’ve been able to bank some of that water and build up our carryover helps us.”
While Langley doesn’t believe the reduced allocation would negatively effect Yuba City in 2017, she said a 20 percent allocation could have ramifications on the state as a whole.
“If it stays at the 20 percent, that’s an indication of a bigger drought issue and the question would become what is the state going to do to address it,” Langley said. “It might be a scenario of going back to mandatory conservation like we’ve experienced in the recent past. They are looking at a lot of different things that can be done to address it.”
Still, Langley said a lot can change from now until May, when the final allocation levels are released after the state experiences its wettest months. To compare, the initial report for 2016 was for a 10 percent allocation, and ended up with a final allocation of 60 percent.
The last time allocations were at 100 percent was in 2006.
Langley is hoping the state continues to receive rainfall through the end of winter so that allocation numbers rise.
“I know the city doesn’t want to get back into doing things like water patrols,” she said. “Hopefully allocations will increase and we can continue to get rain. That way we can continue our operations in terms of not having to implement lawn and irrigation restrictions.”