Water Archives - Page 2 of 51 - California Agriculture News Today

Louder Voices, Bigger Investments Needed for California Water Security, Local Experts Say

The California Water Alliance’s water forum tackled how best to fight for a stable, plentiful water supply for America’s breadbasket.

As the San Joaquin Valley yo-yos from drought to flooding, the region’s top water experts spent Thursday afternoon examining how to best approach the Valley’s long and short-term needs.

The viewpoints came amid the California Water Alliance’s third-annual water forum featuring the leaders of Friant Water Authority, Westlands Water District, farmer Cannon Michael, and Rep. John Duarte (R–Modesto).

Duarte hones in on twin crises: With the expected ‘Big Melt’ likely to increase flooding likelihoods across the San Joaquin Valley over the spring and summer, Duarte opened the forum by noting that he pressed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite permitting for channel flow improvements by water agencies.

“I would encourage anyone who can to move ambitiously on this opportunity. There may be some Federal grants available, but the diesel is going to be cheaper than the biologists later,” Duarte said. “So get busy.”

The freshman Republican congressman stressed that bringing California’s water security conversation to its urban hubs in the Bay Area, and particularly Southern California, should center around its ability to relieve housing affordability through the creation of new, available 50-year water supplies.
He added that the dream list of water projects – from proposed new dams to raising pre-existing reservoirs – would run the state roughly $12 billion.

“I’m in favor of the Federal government and the state government paying for it. California had $31 billion in unemployment fraud during COVID. California’s paying $120 billion for a bullet train nobody’s going to ride. It’s currently flooded, it’s a bullet boat. [Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] gonna go from Woke Moses to Woke Noah this summer,” Duarte said.

“The money’s there. There’s a definite sentiment in at least part of Congress, and I think it’s spreading. I think there’s a lot of urban legislators that are Democrats that are starting to wake up and find out that our water scarcity in California is really hurting working families up and down the state. Without water abundance we will never have affordable housing for working families in California again.”

Reality check needed: Michael, a member of a litany of water organizations and chairman of the San Luis-Delta Mendota Water Authority, pressed for an all-of-the-above approach to the state’s water fluctuations, acknowledging the need for groundwater recharge while boosting above ground water storage.

“It makes me nervous a little bit that some of the NGO community is highlighting groundwater recharge as strongly as they are. Not that I don’t think it’s valuable. But in some ways, it’s kind of a head fake. It’s this shiny object that’s going to solve these problems. It’s going to solve some problems, but [the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley] has done a great job of pointing out the deficit in the Valley of water and the only way out of that is from above ground storage.

Michael singled out Shasta Dam as the poster child for the tug of war.

“There’s this opposition to raising Shasta, which is just insane. It was designed to be bigger and it’s a key component of our system. That reservoir has essentially been hijacked,” Michael said. “That reservoir will never be drawn down below 1 million acre-feet any more. We saw that last year when the Settlement contractors, who were supposed to get 75 or 100 percent of their supply got 18 percent At the same time, there was 1 million acre-feet more of water in Shasta than in 1977.”

Embracing recharge: Freshly-minted Westlands Water District executive director Allison Febbo noted that the nation’s largest agricultural water district is focused on tackling water scarcity by leaning into efficiencies while rapidly embracing in groundwater recharge, a top priority of the district.

“What we need to do is be able to recharge and really squirrel away the water when we have this abundance of water that we’re seeing right now we need to be able to take that and save it for the future,” Febbo said.

“Westlands has gone from zero recharge to right now over 1600 acre feet a day of recharge, and we’re hoping to get to over 65,000 acre feet of recharge in the next month or two, possibly more.”

Febbo added that a collaborative approach was the route to strengthen water security in the Valley.

“This isn’t something that can be done by just one water district or one water agency or even one region, this is really a statewide solution where we need to be collaborating with each other, partnering with each other, and moving away from this ‘If I win, you lose’ or ‘If you win, I lose’ mentality,” she said. “We need to be collaborating together and finding multifaceted solutions for these problems.”

A call-to-action: Jason Phillips, the chief of the Friant Water Authority, laid bare the deficiencies in securing increased water supplies for central California, calling on farmers to utilize their voices for targeted investments.

“I would say that we need to understand something very clearly: we have failed miserably for 40-plus years at generating new water supplies and constructing anything. We’ve gotten nothing done for new storage. So, we need to be very careful when we say ‘We need to build new storage.’ We’ve been saying that for 40 years,” Phillips said.

“We failed with CALFED, which was a President Clinton and Governor Gray Davis joint proposal to build five new reservoirs, none of which happened. That was 23 years ago,” the Friant chief said. “[2014’s] Prop. 1 was a failure. It passed, but it has not been building any new storage.”

“When we talk about what we should be focusing on, the only people who should be focusing on storage is Congressman Duarte and others who can write into law that you are going to go get it done. Because the environmental community and the current people that run this government, they have our number. Checkmate it every time. They will make sure we don’t build it, no matter how smart or how good we think we’re going to get it done.”

“We need to get more sophisticated at how we can go and actually start building water supply. The most important infrastructure that we need is infrastructure of advocates and advocacy to be able to use our existing project facilities. The reason we failed for the last 40 years and depressing as it might sound we might fail for the next 40 is because we’re not able to sit up here and articulate quickly enough – because it’s so complicated in California – why we’ve lost so much water.”

“In 2008 and 2009 there was a biological opinion that was forced upon us by government employees – not Congress – that cost us more water than five Temperance Flat Reservoirs would have produced like that. Gone.”
Phillips turned the table on professional advocates, lawyers, and lobbyists working on behalf of water agencies and grower groups who have insufficiently fought onerous water cutbacks.

“Most of [the 2008/2009 biological opinions], you were all paying someone who agreed to it. That was our advocacy. You were paying somebody to agree to give up water on an order of magnitude that far exceeds any storage projects we’ve built,” Phillips said.

“The hardest thing is that the government employees using the Endangered Species Act and other laws to take our operation of existing projects and constantly tweak it to send more water out to the ocean – and it’s not instead of what they were sending, it’s always on top of that.

“We will have choices to make: do we want to advocate against that? Or do we want all of who you’re paying for to go sit at the table with the government to agree to give up more of our water?”

Rethinking the Calif. equation: Ryan Jacobsen, the Fresno County Farm Bureau boss, noted that the state needed a reality check to its once-simple water equation of 50-40-10, meaning 50 percent of water went to environment, 40 percent of water went to agriculture, and 10 percent to municipal and industrial water users.

“That’s no longer true. Today, those numbers are 80.5 percent of the water in the state of California goes toward environmental purposes now. Of that, 50 percent of that is uncaptured in the environment, 30.5 percent is captured and stored for the environment. Fifteen percent of the total supply is now going toward agriculture, and 4.5 percent is the urban share,” Jacobsen said, citing a new study from the California Farm Bureau Federation.

California Ag Today2023-05-11T15:10:38-07:00May 11th, 2023|

Westlands Water District Celebrates 100% Water Allocation from the Central Valley Project

Today, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) announced an increase in water allocations for the Central Valley Project (CVP). Last month, Reclamation increased the CVP allocation to 80% for contractors like Westlands Water District (Westlands) following an initial allocation of 35% of the water entitled to under contract. Today’s announcement brings the total up to 100% for the first time since 2017.

In response to the announcement, Jose Gutierrez, Westlands’ interim general manager, issued the following statement:

“We are exceedingly grateful to Reclamation, and its dedicated and hard-working staff, for the increased water allocation. Following two years of 0% allocations, this announcement will provide much needed water to support the District’s communities, family-owned farms, and hard-working families in the San Joaquin Valley. This water supply will assist growers in Westlands with putting the land to work to grow the food that feeds the world.”

Mr. Gutierrez noted further:

“At the same time, we must recognize the need to continue preparing for the next drought and future dry years. For that reason, Westlands is investing in a sustainable water future for our farmers. Westlands is exploring and implementing creative approaches to maximize water use efficiency, recharge and storage and improve climate resilience.”

Seizing the opportunity that this year’s hydrology has presented, Westlands has supported its landowners’ efforts to use available water to recharge the Westside Subbasin. To date, District landowners have the capability of recharging up to 3,300 acre feet of water per day. And, groundwater recharge is expected to increase over the coming weeks as both more projects become operational and water becomes available.

This year demonstrates the need to continue the investment in California’s water infrastructure and to refine environmental regulations, so that California is able to capture, transport, and store as much water as possible during wet periods to avoid drastic cuts during dry periods. As climate continues to change, we must remain steadfast in investing in a more predictable and reliable water supply system for our environment, residents, farms and communities.

California Ag Today2023-04-24T09:58:15-07:00April 24th, 2023|

Study offers insights on reducing nitrate contamination from groundwater recharge

By Mike Hsu

With California enduring record-breaking rain and snow and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently easing restrictions on groundwater recharge, interest in “managed aquifer recharge” has never been higher. This process – by which floodwater is routed to sites such as farm fields so that it percolates into the aquifer – holds great promise as a tool to replenish depleted groundwater stores across the state.

But one concern, in the agricultural context, is how recharge might push nitrates from fertilizer into the groundwater supply. Consumption of well water contaminated with nitrates has been linked to increased risk of cancers, birth defects and other health impacts.

“Many growers want to provide farmland to help recharge groundwater, but they don’t want to contribute to nitrate contamination of the groundwater, and they need to know how on-farm recharge practices might affect their crops,” said Matthew Fidelibus, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology.

A recently published study by UC scientists sheds new light on how nitrates move through an agricultural recharge site and how growers might reduce potential leaching. Researchers analyzed data from two grapevine vineyards at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fresno County – one flooded for two weeks, and other for four.

Understanding initial nitrate levels crucial

A key factor in mitigating contamination is understanding how much nitrate is in the soil at the outset, said study author Helen Dahlke, a UC Davis hydrologist and leader of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ strategic initiative on water. In areas with little precipitation and cropping systems that require greater amounts of synthetic fertilizer, the accumulation of residual nitrate – resulting from nitrogen in the fertilizer not taken up by the plants – can be quite high.

“The percentage of nitrates in some soils can really increase over the years, particularly if you have many dry years in a row where you don’t have access to irrigation water or natural precipitation flushing some of those nitrates out of the soil,” Dahlke said.

While intense rains in recent weeks have helped dilute nitrate concentrations naturally, farmers looking to participate in recharge during the dry years ahead should consider flooding their fields with greater volumes of water.

“If you’re doing this for the first time – on-farm recharge in the winter – check your residual soil nitrate levels because if they’re very high, you should apply a lot of water in order to make sure that the residual nitrate is diluted down,” said Dahlke, who also added that growers should check their soil properties for suitability of recharge projects.

She recommended using, as a “good first approximation,” the online Soil Agricultural Groundwater Banking Index map, a project led by Toby O’Geen, a UC Cooperative Extension soil resource specialist.

Researchers looking at other ways to reduce nitrates

Even before flooding the fields for recharge, there are several practices that can lower initial nitrate levels and risk of leaching. Cover crops such as alfalfa and triticale, for example, can help take up residual nitrates that accumulate from fertilizing a main crop over time.

Dahlke and Fidelibus – a co-author of the San Joaquin Valley vineyard study – both pointed to pre-flooding irrigation that encourages denitrification, a process in which soil microbes transform nitrates into gaseous forms of nitrogen.

“Those denitrifying microbes need to be stimulated to do the work,” said Dahlke. “What we have found is that if you do a little bit of irrigation before you start the flooding, increasing the soil moisture can get those microbes started and they can take out more nitrate from the soil.”

The timing and quantity of fertilizer applications are also major factors in reducing leaching. Although more growers are following high-frequency, low-concentration practices to maximize uptake by crops, Dahlke said there needs to be more emphasis on incorporating nitrogen transformation processes – such as denitrification – in the nutrient management guidelines that farmers follow.

“Implementing thoughtful nutrient management plans will play a particularly important role in participating farms,” Fidelibus added.

A more holistic view of groundwater recharge

In short, choices made during the growing season can affect those in the winter recharge season – and vice versa. For example, applying compost or other organic amendments to soil can give microbes the “fuel” they need for sustained denitrification.

“What we have found is that our denitrifying bacteria often run out of steam because they don’t have enough carbon to do the work,” Dahlke said. “Like us, microbes need energy to do the work, and for microbes this energy comes from soil carbon.”

Then, adding moisture via recharge to that field with high organic content can stimulate mineralization and nitrification, processes in which microbes transform the organic nitrogen into ammonium – and subsequently nitrates – that the plants can then take up. Those naturally occurring nitrates would thus reduce the need for the grower to apply synthetic fertilizer.

“The winter on-farm recharge experiments have shown that altering the moisture regime in the winter has consequences for the nitrogen budget in the summer growing season,” Dahlke explained. “Theoretically, what we need to be doing is better integrating both seasons by keeping an eye on the soil-nitrogen balance across the whole year so that we can ensure, at the end of the growing season, the residual nitrate in the soil is minimized.”

The study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, was part of the post-doctoral work of former UC Davis researcher Elad Levintal. In addition to Fidelibus and Dahlke, other authors are Laibin Huang, Cristina Prieto García, Adolfo Coyotl, William Horwath and Jorge Rodrigues, all in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis.

California Ag Today2023-03-23T08:08:07-07:00March 23rd, 2023|

Dam Release Cut Will Help Ease Flood Flow

By Steve Haugen and Randy McFarland

UNPRECEDENTED ACTION WILL BE TAKEN TONIGHT at Pine Flat Dam to reduce at least some of the flood potential that will occur in the Kings River’s valley reaches during the about-to-begin tropically-spawned warm rain event. The Kings River Water Association and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to make an extraordinary temporary reduction tonight in a major flood release already under way from the dam in the Fresno County foothills near Piedra.

Kings River Watermaster Steve Haugen said this afternoon (March 8) that the dam’s current release of 5,190 cubic feet per second (c.f.s.) (including a flood release of 3,000 c.f.s.) that is now occurring—will be reduced at midnight tonight to 1,100 c.f.s.

“This cooperative action will temporarily reduce the amount of water passing through the Kings River channel in order to better accommodate very high unregulated storm runoff flows from Mill Creek andother smaller streams that discharge into the river below the dam,” said Haugen.

The action is being taken in response to a prediction that Mill Creek flows, which have been only between 200-400 c.f.s. the past few days, will peak as a result of the looming atmospheric river rainfall at a massive level of about 18,800 c.f.s. about 2 p.m. Friday. Mill Creek flows are now forecast to be near or above 17,000 c.f.s. for 12 hours, until about 7 p.m. Friday.

Haugen said the KRWA-Corps plan calls for total Pine Flat Dam releases to be back up to 3,000 c.f.s. by 10 p.m. Thursday. However, as Mill Creek flows climb toward and fall from their peak level, the Corps of Engineers will suspend all Pine Flat releases into the river except 50 c.f.s. of fish-flow water.

Even though the temporary release reductions are expected to cause fairly abrupt short-term declines in the Kings River’s downstream flow amounts, water levels will quickly build back up, possibly to considerably higher levels, as the high water from Mill Creek and other lower foothill streams enter the river, and as releases are resumed from Pine Flat Dam.

Even with these unusual arrangements, Haugen said, Kings River water levels will be dangerously high with local flooding likely. Everyone living or having property near the river of any stream needs to be on alert to these emergency conditions, he added. Emergency services agencies in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties are working closely with Kings River interests to be ready to meet needs.

California Ag Today2023-03-09T13:08:30-08:00March 9th, 2023|

Statement on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Initial 2023 Water Supply Allocation for the Friant Division

By Alex Biering

Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that initial water supply allocations for the Friant Division contractors and the San Joaquin River Restoration Program. Friant Division Class 1 contractors will receive 100% of their contract supplies from Millerton Lake, equivalent to 800,000 acre-feet of water; Friant Division Class 2 contractors will begin with a 20% allocation, representing about 234,000 acre-feet. The San Joaquin River Restoration Program will receive a “wet year” allocation of about 556,500 acre-feet of water to support habitat and spawning conditions for returning salmon. Coming on the heels of three dry years (two of which required releases from Friant Dam to meet Exchange Contractor demands), these allocations are excellent news for the communities and farms in the Friant Division and on the eastside, as well as for the river restoration effort which had to halt flows last year due to the drought. We are encouraged by Reclamation’s confidence in water availability for the 2023 water year and appreciate the early allocation announcement, as it helps farmers and water managers plan for planting crops or implementing recharge projects throughout the remainder of the season.

California Ag Today2023-02-23T15:11:15-08:00February 23rd, 2023|

Westlands Water District Responds to Central Valley Project Initial Water Allocation

By Elizabeth Jonasson

Today, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) announced the initial water allocation for Central Valley Project (CVP) water. Reclamation allocated Westlands Water District (Westlands) and similarly situation contractors 35% of the water the districts are entitled to under their contracts.

In response to the announcement, Jose Gutierrez, the District’s interim general manager, issued the following statement:

“We are grateful for a 35% allocation and thank the dedicated staff at Reclamation, who worked hard to allocate as much water as feasible to the water users who have survived on a 0% allocation for the past two years. The past two years of 0% resulted in over 223,000 acres, approximately 36% of the District’s farmland, being fallowed in Westlands. An adequate and reliable supply of surface water is critical to the viability of the communities and farms in the San Joaquin Valley and their ability to feed the world. We are hopeful that precipitation continues to fall and are appreciative of the initial allocation from Reclamation.”

This year’s initial allocation demonstrates the critical and urgent need to invest in water storage and conveyance infrastructure. California must do a better job capturing water during wet periods, like those we experienced at the end of December and beginning of January. Modernizing our decades old federal and state storage and conveyance systems and improving local and regional infrastructure are important steps. The District continues to pursue, support, and implement balanced solutions that protect and restore the water supplies needed by the families that live and work in and around the District. The District is committed to ensuring every drop of water available is put to good use, including for California’s precious ecosystems.

California Ag Today2023-02-23T08:41:59-08:00February 23rd, 2023|

CALIFORNIA FRESH FRUIT ASSOCIATION ISSUES STATEMENT ON CVP WATER ALLOCATION ANNOUNCEMENT

The California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) has issued a statement in response to
today’s initial water allocation announcement of 35% for the Central Valley Project (CVP) by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

President Ian LeMay stated, “After two years of receiving an initial 0% allocation, the California Fresh Fruit Association and our members are grateful for the 35% that will go to the Central Valley Project contract holders. Having a reliable water supply is critical for our members to continue to be able to grow fresh fruit for our nation. However, after experiencing significant rainfall in December and January, it has been made even more apparent California’s need for improvements to our storage and conveyance infrastructure, as well as changes to the regulations that manage our water systems. I cannot help but wonder how much higher this allocation could have been with the ability to capture more water during the wet periods.”

CFFA will continue to advocate for needed changes to water regulations, along with additional water conveyance and infrastructure solutions at the federal and state levels to ensure that our members are able to provide the freshest fruit to the nation and world.

California Ag Today2023-02-23T07:44:21-08:00February 23rd, 2023|

Water Board Grants Lamont District $25.4 Million to Secure Safe Drinking Water for 20,000 Residents

Project will consolidate systems of two severely disadvantaged communities

By Dimitri Stanich, California Water Boards

In Kern County today, the State Water Resources Control Board joined Lamont Public Utility District and elected representatives to celebrate a $25.4 million grant the utility is receiving from the board’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) drinking water program – which has to date invested over $65 million in the county since 2019. The grant announced today will allow the consolidation of the historically failing water systems serving Lamont and El Adobe Property Owners’ Association to create a new, upgraded system that will supply safe and affordable water to over 20,000 residents.

“This is the result of many years of hard work—coordinating separate authorities and overcoming many challenges to craft a feasible solution that will provide safe and affordable drinking water,” said Nichole Morgan, member of the State Water Board. “But through the sheer determination, cooperation and goodwill of all involved, Lamont PUD now has a sound plan and the means to build a drinking water system that will serve this community for generations to come.”

The project includes drilling three new drinking water wells, the destruction of three 45-year-old wells—that exceeded the state Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) for arsenic and 1,2,3-trichloropropane— and the construction of a new water distribution system for El Adobe, which currently has elevated levels of arsenic. El Adobe will be connected to Lamont PUD through the installation of a 10-inch transmission main and water meters.

“For us, this is monumental. We have never received assistance of this magnitude in our 80-year existence,” said Scott Taylor, general manager of Lamont PUD. “The grant helps us make critical repairs and upgrades to our system so that we can reliably provide safe and affordable drinking water for our customers and El Adobe as well. Both Lamont and El Adobe are severely disadvantaged communities and our customers are mostly agricultural workers. This never would have been possible without the board’s funding and technical support through the SAFER program.”

In Kern County, where Lamont is located, 14 other projects consolidating more than 50 systems, including two schools, are currently being developed through SAFER. Since it was launched in July 2019, the program has invested over $65 million in the county for a variety of drinking water projects that will ultimately benefit 212,000 people. Statewide, 95 consolidations have been completed, providing 78,000 people with safe drinking water.

SAFER uses a set of tools, funding sources and regulatory authorities designed to ensure Californians who currently lack safe and affordable drinking water receive it as quickly as possible. Funding provided through the program is drawn from various drinking water funding sources. The grant awarded for this project is comprised of funding for drinking water infrastructure authorized in the 2021-22 state budget and Proposition 68.

Lamont PUD anticipates it will begin construction this summer.

California Ag Today2023-02-13T15:28:56-08:00February 13th, 2023|

CDFA Accepting Public Comments on the Draft Request for Applications for the New Water Efficiency Technical Assistance Program

By Steve Lyle, California Department of Food and Agriculture

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (OEFI) is accepting public comments on the draft request for Applications for the Water Efficiency Technical Assistance (WETA) program.

The Budget Act of 2021 allocated $15 million to CDFA to support water efficiency technical assistance to California farmers. Resource Conservation Districts, non-profit organizations, universities, and California and federally recognized tribes will be eligible to receive technical assistance funding. Supported activities will include providing one-on-one, on-site pump and irrigation system evaluations and providing training regarding water efficiency and nutrient management.

“Although we’ve just come through a period of storms and rain, we know that overall California is still in a water deficit from the drought we’ve been experiencing for the last few years,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “CDFA is excited to offer resources for farmers and ranchers to continue to improve water efficiency for a future that will be hotter and drier with increased evapotranspiration.”

Stakeholders are encouraged to review the Draft Request for Applications for the Water Efficiency Technical Assistance Program and estimated program timeline on the Technical Assistance website and submit comments by February 9, 2023, 5 PM PT to cdfa.oefi@cdfa.ca.gov.

California Ag Today2023-02-01T14:45:25-08:00February 1st, 2023|

State Water Deliveries to Surge — Highest in 6 Years

By Alastair Bland, Cal Matters

State officials announced today that water deliveries from the state’s aqueduct will be increased to 30%, the highest amount for January that growers and Southern California cities have received in six years.

Less than two months ago, amid forecasts of a third consecutive drought year, the California Department of Water Resources announced an initial allocation of just 5% of the supplies requested from its State Water Project, which transports Northern California water south.

But recent storms have boosted the reservoirs, snowpack and river flows that feed the state aqueduct. Never in the 27 years of records has such a poor initial estimate been followed by such a rapid, dramatic jump.

About 27 million people, mostly in Southern California, and 750,000 acres of farmland depend on water provided by the State Water Project.

“Thanks to the water captured and stored from recent storms, the state is increasing deliveries to local agencies that support two-thirds of Californians – good news for communities and farms in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We’ll keep pushing to modernize our water infrastructure to take advantage of these winter storms and prepare communities for the climate-driven extremes of wet and dry ahead.”

The first projection for 2023 water deliveries came on Dec. 1, when things looked very different in the dynamic interplay between California drought, water supplies and weather forecasting. At the time, Lake Oroville — the project’s largest reservoir — was 27% full, containing less than a million acre-feet of water. Weather experts were meanwhile predicting another winter of predominantly blue skies and light precipitation.

Things quickly changed when a series of powerful storms soaked the state for weeks early this year. The wet weather has boosted Oroville to 63% of its total capacity and 110% of its historical average for this date. The reservoir contained 2.19 million acre-feet of water as of Jan. 26, and, like others throughout the state, it continues to rise.

Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said the increased deliveries don’t mean the state will see a wet year.

“We are still early in the season,” she said, adding that “things have turned dry again.” She also said the increased deliveries are a result of more reservoir storage and doesn’t fully take into account increases in Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is now more than double its historic average for January.

Allocations for January often are revised up or down later in the year, after spring runoff is measured. Usually, the final allocation increases. For instance, in June 2019, water deliveries reached 75% after starting the year at 15%.

The last time that water deliveries so early in the year exceeded the 30% was before the current drought, back in 2017 — when a record-breaking, 5-year drought ended, rainfall almost broke state records, and deliveries reached 60%. The last three years were dismal, with allocations between 5 and 20%. The last time the local agencies got 100% was in 2006.

For the Las Virgenes Water District, which serves about 75,000 people in northern Los Angeles County and gets all of its water from the state aqueduct, the new allocation recasts what was a very grim outlook on water supplies for 2023.

“Mother Nature is giving us a chance to catch our breath,” said Mike McNutt, a Las Virgenes spokesman.

The district enforced stiff regulations on outdoor watering last year, including the use of restrictors, which are small washers inserted into pipes, into the homes of repeat violators of water conservation rules.

Dave Pedersen, the district’s general manager, said the increased deliveries will “soften some of the harshest water restrictions.” But he added that water conservation will remain a long-term goal, with a focus on replacing lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping.

California Ag Today2023-01-27T11:00:06-08:00January 27th, 2023|