Largest irrigation district in Stanislaus trims deliveries again as drought persists
The Turlock Irrigation District will cap its farmers at about 60% of normal supplies as the drought enters a third year.
The district board voted 5-0 Tuesday to deliver that much water from the Tuolumne River. The irrigation season will start Tuesday, March 29, none too soon in a region whose last major storm was in late December.
“It’s dry,” Ceres-area almond grower Tim Sanders told the board. “We need to get a drink on those trees.”
TID is the largest irrigation district in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, with about 149,000 acres between the Ceres and Hilmar areas. It is not faring as badly during the drought as some places, thanks to strong river rights and the vast capacity of Don Pedro Reservoir.
Still, the TID allotment is short of what it takes to grow most nut, fruit, feed and other crops. Farmers can supplement it with groundwater, if they have it, or let some annual fields lie fallow. Tuesday’s vote includes a pilot program allowing transfers of water among customers.
The allotment is 27 vertical inches over a season running to Oct. 12. The level is 30 inches in the Modesto Irrigation District, which shares Don Pedro with TID.
Runoff in the Tuolumne watershed is expected to be about 57% of average this year, TID water distribution manager Mike Kavarian told his board. The snowpack had shot to 160% of average in December, but January to March did not bring the accustomed storms.
The runoff set a record in 2017, filling Don Pedro and boosting aquifers. The next year was below average, followed by an above-average 2019 and now three years of drought.
MID and TID both provided about 80% of their usual water last year. They aim to leave enough in Don Pedro this coming autumn to guard against a fourth dry year. That last happened in 2016, when they delivered only about 40% of normal supplies.
The outlook is better in the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts, which have senior rights to the Stanislaus River. Neither has a cap on farmers for 2022 but urge careful use nonetheless.
The Merced Irrigation District will provide just 1.1 acre-feet of water from the Merced River, which amounts to about 13 inches.
On the West Side, many districts will get zero water this year from the federal Central Valley Project. The allotment is 75% for four suppliers with San Joaquin River rights predating the project. They are the Central California Irrigation District, the San Luis Canal Co., the Firebaugh Canal Water District and the Columbia Canal Co.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 4:26 PM.
