Drought update: State Water Board will make the call on refilling Don Pedro reservoir
A state board approved a drought regulation Tuesday that puts irrigation districts in Stanislaus County in the precarious position of trusting a state agency they have battled with in the recent past.
Faced with a worsening drought emergency, the State Water Resources Control Board will move ahead with curtailment orders to stop some diversions from rivers and deal with severe water shortages.
“It takes over local management of our (water storage) systems and asks local managers to trust the state water board to run their systems,” said attorney Valerie Kincaid, representing the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, which includes the Modesto, Turlock and Oakdale irrigation districts.
“This seems awfully fast. My suggestion to build trust is to slow this process down and hear from us some more. You have to listen to the stakeholders in this process,” Kincaid said in comments to the state board.
The water board approved the regulations in a 5-0 vote Tuesday after spending almost seven hours on the item.
Three years ago, the state board pushed a controversial plan for a sharp increase in environmental flows on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers. In August 2018, about 1,500 people from Stanislaus and Merced counties attended a boisterous rally in Sacramento to protest the “water grab”, which some predicted would decimate the local economy.
Lawsuits followed and the issue is not settled yet.
The same water board, which oversees water rights in California, could issue orders in mid-August to stop certain diversions on rivers flowing into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta to protect drinking water supplies or save endangered fish amid the worst drought since 1977.
The water board action was supported by a panel of top directors over the state Department of Water Resources, Bureau of Reclamation and California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Local irrigation districts are now faced with ceding control to a water board deputy director, who will have authority to stop diversions on rivers including the Tuolumne and then decide when to lift the orders.
In other words, if the state agency temporarily halts diversions at Don Pedro dam as a drought measure, its deputy director will decide when MID and TID can start refilling the reservoir again.
Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the state board, thanked Kincaid for raising the trust issue, though he disagreed with a number of points raised by the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority.
“We need to build trust and it is a two-way process,” Esquivel said.
Modesto Irrigation District didn’t have an immediate comment following the state board decision. The regulation will proceed to a five-day comment period. The first containment orders to stop diversions will be issued Aug. 16-19.
The orders may be issued if data shows that water is not available for a particular use in this time of extreme imbalance between water demands and supply.
The containment orders could play more of a role in drought management next year if dry conditions persist in the fall and the drought intensifies in 2022. Most demand for irrigation water has passed this year.
No immediate impacts are anticipated for city of Modesto water customers who receive treated water from MID.
Why the regulation is needed
The state board clarified some issues regarding the proposed regulation unveiled July 23.
The orders to curtail diversions don’t apply to water previously placed in storage. Don Pedro will continue generating hydropower in the coming months as water is released for customer deliveries and environmental benefits, MID spokeswoman Melissa Williams said by email.
The state board also clarified that by Oct. 1, the deputy director will assess whether to allow diversions to resume or continue with a curtailment order. Storms or increased river flows in the fall would allow a dam operator to begin storing water for next year.
Local irrigation districts said they could see the impacts of a curtailment order in 2022. Hypothetically, a curtailment order imposed in August could keep Don Pedro’s operators from refilling the reservoir this fall if the state board does not lift the order.
The state board said curtailment orders may be lifted when river flows increase or are projected to increase, with the intent of regaining reservoir storage.
The state is open to cooperative agreements among water rights holders as an alternative to curtailment orders.
According to presentations at the meeting, the state action is needed to keep salinity levels from rising in the delta, to protect drinking water supplies for cities and avoid drawing down reservoir storage that’s already critically low.
Esquivel said illegal diversions are depleting storage supplies.
A chart displayed during the meeting painted a dire picture after two dry years. The water supply in the San Joaquin River watershed is 6 percent of demand for 229,000 acre feet of water. The Sacramento River watershed can meet about a third of demand for 803,000 acre feet of water.
The state agency said reservoirs are near record low storage, including the ones that maintain salinity in the delta and supply drinking water to two-thirds of the state.
Shasta, Oroville and Folsom dams are holding about one third of historic average storage. Staff noted that the 1976-77 drought was more severe but drinking water and other demands for delta water were less at that time.
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
