AS California enters what is likely its fourth straight year of drought, hundreds of farmers in the Central Valley were told on Friday, Feb. 27, they will receive zero water deliveries from the Central Valley Project, the state’s largest water delivery system.
The announcement was made by the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that operates a system of reservoirs and canals that make up the Central Valley Project. The project provides water to six of California’s top 10 agricultural counties.
“Today’s picture is not a pretty one,” said David Murrilo, regional director for the bureau. “The rain events in December were encouraging, but the persistent dry weather in the first two months of this year underscores our need to prepare for another year of drought.”
Although the state experienced some rainstorms late last year and this year, including one this past weekend, they have not been enough to mitigate California’s parched predicament.
“Unless it pours rain in the next two months, we’re facing a long, dry, tough summer,” said Abby Figueroa, a spokeswoman for the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The 0-percent allocation of water to agricultural customers will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis, and the number could rise if the remainder of the winter proves to be wetter.
“California is the breadbasket of the world, the food basket of the world, the Central Valley is a very important part of that,” said Paul Wenger, a Modesto farmer and California Farm Bureau president, according to CBS.
The new allocation hits parts of the San Joaquin Valley particularly hard, as alternative water supplies in the area are more limited.
For Bert Sagardia, 71, who farms his family’s 1,000-acre plot in western Fresno County, he and his brother, Mike, 67, manage to sustain 600 acres of almonds on their property. They’ve given up lower-value crops they grew before, such as barley, beans and cotton, because of the drought.
“With the water costs being so high, there are crops you’re limited to because you can’t cover your costs anymore,” he said, according to SF Gate.
The Central Valley Project constitutes a significant percentage of many farmers’ water supply, and receiving none from the government will mean land will have to be fallowed again this year.
But not all farms in the Central Valley will be affected by the announcement, including Wenger’s, as some do not rely on water from the Reclamation Bureau. Some possess alternate sources, including groundwater wells, the ability to buy water from other suppliers, and their own diversion rights in rivers and streams.
Built starting in the 1930s, the Central Valley Project transports water from Shasta Lake near Redding to Bakersfield through a series of 500 miles of canals and large pumps, and 20 dams. In most years, the project allocates about 90 percent of its water to farms. In dry years, cities receive higher priority than farmers.
Urban areas, such as Santa Clara, and Alameda and Contra Costa counties, will receive 25 percent of their contracted amount of water.
Farmers with the oldest claims to water, however, could receive up to 75 percent of their contracted amounts this year, San Jose Mercury News reported.
“Today is a very sad day for the people in California and all over the country who depend on food grown by farmers who receive water from the Central Valley Project,” Don Peracchi, president of Westlands Water District, which serves a large area of Fresno County and is the nation’s biggest agricultural irrigation district, said in a statement.
Urban water providers said Friday’s announcement means they will increase conservation, depend more heavily on groundwater pumping and purchase water from limited, willing sellers.
Most major cities in California have endured with voluntary conservation rules, but things may change. Figueroa said the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s board will meet in April to discuss implementing penalties for excessive water use and mandating limits on lawn watering. Some cities, such as Morgan Hill, already restrict watering lawns to one day per week.
Friday’s notice is similar one made last year. In the San Joaquin Valley and other agricultural regions, many did not receive federal water last year, and hundreds of thousands of farm acres ended up being fallowed.
“As rural Californians face an uncertain future, their communities will continue to struggle with mounting unemployment and economic hardship,” said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition.
Last year, with 5 percent of California’s cropland left unplanted due to the drought, about 4 percent of the state’s farm employment – 17,100 jobs – were lost.
On Friday, Shasta Lake, the system’s largest reservoir, stood at 79 percent of where it usually is this time of year, and the snowpack that typically replenishes Shasta and other reservoirs was at 19 percent compared to normal levels.
“Last year wasn’t great, but we’re actually tracking a little bit more than that at this point,” said Ron Milligan, Central Valley Project operations manager. “We think this year could be more severe.”
(With reports from CBS, San Jose Mercury News, SF Gate and The Sacramento Bee)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek March 4-6, 2015 Sec. A pg.4)
