Some water suppliers have just 5% amid drought. Oakdale district has surplus to sell
The winter just ended has been especially dry, but the effects vary widely for farm water suppliers in and near Stanislaus County.
The Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts actually have surpluses to sell thanks to storage in New Melones Reservoir from 2020.
They have lined up buyers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, where some districts can expect just 5% allotments from the federal and state canal systems.
The Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts are capping their growers, but at levels that will still provide roughly 80% of the accustomed supplies. Carryover in Don Pedro Reservoir helped make this possible.
The federal Central Valley Project last month announced allotments that range from 5% to 75% for water pumped south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The higher amount will go to four districts between Crows Landing and Mendota that have priority due to water rights predating the CVP.
California is in the second year of drought, worse in 2021 than last year. But the state had far above-average rain and snow in 2017 and a pretty good 2019, filling reservoirs and recharging groundwater for use in dry times.
OID and SSJID will get $250 per acre-foot
OID and SSJID have often sold water above their own farmers’ needs, thanks to past conservation efforts and an agreement on New Melones storage. Both boards voted in early March to sell water at a handsome $250 per acre-foot to two entities representing farmers as far south as Kern County.
The sale could total as much as 100,000 acre-feet, but the exact amount will likely be less, OID General Manager Steve Knell said by email.
The water will be delivered via the Stanislaus River to the Delta, where massive pumps supply the state and federal canals. This will coincide with the spring releases that OID and SSJID have to do anyway to help young salmon get out to sea.
“The outmigration flow required at Vernalis for critical years is over 3,000 (cubic feet per second) for 30 days,” Knell said. “Without the water sale, the flows will be less than 50% of those required.”
The contracts are with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and the State Water Contractors. Both represent irrigation districts up and down the Valley’s west side.
The CVP announced its 5% allotment last month and said Tuesday that even that will be held back until an unknown date. The State Water Project lowered its figure from 10% to 5% on Tuesday.
“Californians — we know drought, we know how to manage it,” Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, told The Sacramento Bee. “This is going to test us. We do have the tools that we need.”
East side of valley looks better
OID and SSJID are not capping their own customers this year, but they still urge farmers to use water wisely.
MID has a cap of 36 vertical inches of Tuolumne River water per acre over the irrigation season. TID is going with 34 inches. They are about four-fifths of the usual amounts, which will likely prompt many farmers to use groundwater, too.
A third straight dry winter could prompt deeper cutbacks next year, similar to the latter stages of the 2012-16 drought.
In abundant years such as 2017, the districts encourage farmers to do a season-ending flood irrigation to boost the aquifer.
The west side farmers getting 75% of their federal allotment this year are in four agencies: the Central California Irrigation District, the San Luis Canal Co., the Firebaugh Canal Water District and the Columbia Canal Co.
The 5% allotment includes the Del Puerto Water District, which irrigates about 45,000 acres along Interstate 5 from Vernalis to Santa Nella.
Del Puerto has reduced its reliance on the federal system by using highly treated water from sewage treatment plants in Modesto and Turlock. And it proposes a reservoir west of Patterson for better long-term control of its storage.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 2:05 PM.
