Additional Water
A
good snowpack, recent storms and growing water levels in many of the state's
reservoirs have farmers hoping both the state and the federal government
will improve water allocations from the historical low amounts announced
last month.
At some locations in the mountains of Tulare County the snowpack is already two and three times the average found on April 1.
Statewide, the water content in California's mountain snowpack is 107 percent of normal for the date, a vast improvement of the 80 percent of average found at the beginning of March last year, the state Department of Water Resources said.
“Today's readings boost our hope that we will be able to increase the State Water Project allocation by this spring to deliver more water to our cities and farms,” said (DWR Director Mark Cowin last week when the March 1 snowpack figures were announced. “But we must remember that even a wet winter will not fully offset three consecutive dry years or pumping restrictions to protect Delta fish so we must continue to conserve and protect our water resources.”
Statewide, the snowpack is put at an average of 94 inches, or 107 percent of normal and already 72 percent of the April 1 average. Those readings were taken before the storms of last week and this week.
Two weeks ago, the feds announced an initial allocation of just 5 percent of average water deliveries, while the state reported it would deliver just 5 to 15 percent. Both were record low projections and were met with disappointment by water and ag interests who point to what is so far an above average snowpack.
On Friday, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor announced that the feds were sticking with their initial 5 percent allocation, but did say they would announce a revision on March 15. When the feds made their announcement Feb. 26, they said if rainfall and snowfall continued at at least an average pace, then it might increase its allocation to 30 percent.
Westlands Water District and others argued that 5 percent water allocation was too little for farmers to be able to get loans or make planting plans. Westlands, with support of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jim Costa, urged the feds to adjust the allocation sooner than later.
Sarah Woolf, spokesperson for Westlands, said that most growers must know how much water they will receive by April 1.
“This will be helpful. We'd still like to know right now,” said Woolf of the March 15 deadline.
In a press release, Woolf said Connor stated that the March 15 announcement will increase the declaration of water to be made available, and if average precipitation and runoff continue, the increased allocation is likely to be 30 percent. Moreover, Reclamation and the Department of the Interior will pursue other actions that are likely to yield an additional 8-10 percent of the districts' water supplies.
If the allocation is increased to 30 percent, that amounts to about 9 inches of irrigation water per acre in the Westlands District. Last year farmers there got just 3 inches of water per acre. Westlands relies only on federal water.
“It will put some land back into production, decrease groundwater pumping and help push salts down that have built up in the soil,” said Woolf of the 30 percent delivery.
Last year, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland were left fallow because of the lack of water.
Tom Birmingham, Westlands' general manager, said he was disappointed in the delay, “but we recognize that this was a difficult decision for the commissioner to make. From numerous discussions with the commissioner over the last week, we know that Reclamation gave our request serious consideration.”
Woolf said that Feinstein has been a big help and she is still working on legislation that would give growers up to 40 percent of the average allocation.
Good Snowpack
In the mountains of Tulare County the snowpack is considerably better than a year ago. At Hockett Meadow at 8,600 foot elevation, surveyors on Feb. 23 found 111 inches of snow with a water content of 38 inches. That is 104 percent of the April 1 average.
At Giant Forest, 6,400 feet, surveyors found 74 inches of snow on Feb. 27, 171 percent of the April 1 average.
More impressive, at Quaking Aspen, at 7,000 feet above Porterville, surveyors found 70.8 inches of snow on March 1, a whopping 350 percent of the April 1 average. The water density there was 61 percent.
“There is a lot of water in the snow and that's good,” said Josh Courter, hydrologist with the Sequoia National Forest Western Divide Ranger District who did the survey. He said on average, they found 7 feet of snow with a water density of 55 percent. That was considerably better than the 5 feet of snow containing only 25 percent water found on the first of February.
At the Old Enterprise Mill Course on Mt. Home State Forest, surveyors found 68.8 inches of snow with 14.3 inches of water – 253 percent of the April 1 average. Last year there was just 47.5 inches of snow there at this time.
Snowfall this year has been excellent. At Farewell Gap above Visalia the snowpack today is approximately 90 inches more than it was at the start of January. As of Monday, there was 120 inches of snow on the ground at Farewell Gap. On Jan. 11, there was just 33 inches.
Since the first of the year, Visalia has received 5.13 inches of rainfall.
Elsewhere in the state, Lake Oroville, the State Water Project's principal storage reservoir, is recovering slowly after three dry years. Despite recent storms, its storage level today is only 55 percent average for this time of year. State officials said if storms continue, the final allocation of state water could be in the range of 35-45 percent of requested amounts.
However, at Mt. Shasta the snowpack is more than 125 inches and that is more than 100 percent of average.
The low allocations are a definite sign of the pumping restrictions that have been so hotly debated the past several months.
“This is just a vivid example of what's occurring by limiting the pumps,” said Woolf, adding that more than 300,000 acre feet of water has gone out to sea since the first of the year – water that could have been sent south to be used to irrigate crops this spring had the feds not shut down the pumps.
The federal Central Valley Project in 2009 delivered just 10 percent of contracted amounts to some agricultural areas in the Valley. The reduced deliveries were due both to dry weather and the pumping restrictions to protect fish species; principally Delta smelt, salmon and longfin smelt.
The average of final State Water Project allocations over the past 10 years has been 68 percent of the amount requested by the 29 public agencies with long-term contracts to purchase SWP water.
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