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Most Central Valley farmers unlikely to get federal water–again

It’s not a big surprise, but the federal government has announced it won’t be sending any of its reservoir water to the Central Valley of California for the second straight year.

That means farmers in California’s agricultural heartland will probably have to idle more land — and produce fewer crops — because there is simply not enough water for all of their fields. Some are able to get water from alternate sources, including wells or by buying it on the private market, but often at a much higher price than the federal supplies.

Citing below-average reservoir storage and an abysmal snowpack as California enters a fourth year of drought, managers of the federal Central Valley Project said they probably will not deliver any supplies this year to farmers in the system who don’t have senior water rights.

But, according to L.A. Times, the agency’s initial assessment of how much water they can send to growers is always conservative. There are still two months left in the rainy season and if conditions improve, so could the allocation.

Paul Wegner, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, said the federal government’s announcement is another sign California needs to speed up construction of water storage projects and to reform laws requiring the government to prioritize water to preserve the environment and fish species.

Meanwhile, the State of California Department of Water Resources says it will increase deliveries to most of State Water Project (SWP) Customers by five percent or 204,000 acre feet.  Storms in December and February are credited with the additional water.  Still that would only mean 20 percent of the water request from the SWP this year would be delivered–which is better than the five percent the customers got last year.

Roughly 25 million Californians and nearly one million acres of irrigated farmland in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Clara Valley and San Joaquin Valley depend upon the SWP for at least some of their supplies.

Photo courtesy of FoodOnline.com