So much for drought: TID plans generous water deliveries

Facing a brimming reservoir, the Turlock Irrigation District urged its farmers Tuesday to use as much water as they can this year.

The district expects to provide normal deliveries for the first time since 2011 – and even an extra amount to help recharge groundwater stressed by the five-year drought.

“We can’t get rid of it quickly enough,” said Tou Her, assistant general manager for water resources, at an evening board meeting.

The Tuolumne River watershed was at 204 percent of average for the date and could end up having its wettest year on record, Her said. TID shares the supply with the Modesto Irrigation District, which likely will have similar news for its farmers.

Don Pedro Reservoir filled several months early, forcing the release of huge volumes of water the past few weeks. That brought some flooding to low-lying homes and farmland, but nothing like the disaster of 1997.

TID, which operates Don Pedro under an agreement with MID, opened its spillway last week to boost the flows even more. It aimed to create space in the reservoir for upcoming storm runoff and snowmelt, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the spillway closed as of Monday. The federal agency was concerned about levees on the lower San Joaquin River, which the Tuolumne feeds.

Her proposed a 48-inch allotment for 2017 – 4 vertical feet of water delivered over a season likely running from late March to late October. The allotment got as low as 18 inches during the worst of the drought but recovered to 36 inches last year.

“It will be nice to get a full irrigation,” said Tim Sanders, an almond grower in the Ceres area, after the meeting. During the meeting he said the Corps of Engineers spillway decision “is a little short-sighted.”

The board is to vote on the allotment March 21.

Many farmers have installed drip lines or microsprinklers to guard against water shortages, but TID is asking customers to do flood irrigation where possible. Many environmentalists think this wastes the supply, but advocates say it has long replenished aquifers deep under the cropland.

The recharge water will be sold at TID’s highest rate. It also will be available to farmers who lie east of the district boundary but have access to the Highline Canal.

TID is the largest irrigation district in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, serving about 149,000 acres from southern Modesto to northern Merced County.

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 8:40 PM with the headline "So much for drought: TID plans generous water deliveries."