FEDERAL WATER DELIVERIES FORECAST TO INCREASE FOR MILLIONS OF CALIFORNIANS

Kiley Russell, Bay City News

State and federal water managers announced Feb. 22 increased deliveries for millions of Californians in response to hopeful hydrologic conditions that materialized over the past several weeks.

After a series of powerful storms brought rain and snow to much of California in December and January, increased reservoir levels led the state’s Department of Water Resources to set its delivery forecast at 30 percent of requested water supplies for the 29 public water agencies that draw from the State Water Project to serve 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.

On Feb. 22, DWR slightly increased its delivery forecast to 35 percent of requested supplies.

“We're hopeful that more storms this week are a sign that the wet weather will return, but there remains a chance that 2023 will be a below average water year in the northern Sierra,” said DWR director Karla Nemeth.

Also on Feb. 22, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation published its initial water allocation numbers for the Central Valley Project, the state’s other water storage and delivery backbone.

Deliveries for most of the urban and industrial water users that draw from that system were set at 75 percent of historical usage, up from just 25 percent last year.

While some rural irrigation systems are looking at 35 percent deliveries, many agricultural water users in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds are forecast to receive 100 percent of their contracted deliveries in 2023.

“Three years of record-setting drought in California will take some time to recover from,” said Bureau ofReclamation regional director ErnestConant.

Currently, snowpack levels for theSierra Nevada are well above normaland several of the state’s reservoirsare filled to at or near their historicalaverage for this time of year, with a fewnotably large exceptions like Trinity,New Melones and Shasta.

“In the short-term, the early winterstorms have helped, but in the longterm,we still have much catching upto do, especially in the northern partof our system,” Conant said.

In addition to the increased water deliveries from both the state's major systems, water rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Russian River areas have been allowed to start drawing from those watersheds after enduring on-and-off curtailment orders during the worst of the drought.

While the announcements are welcome news to drinking water systems and farmers across the state, Golden State Salmon Association president John McManus said the decision to allow some agricultural users to receive 100 percent of their water allocations comes at the expense of fish populations and the people who rely on them for jobs.

“That water is needed to safely deliver this year's baby salmon from the Central Valley to the ocean,” McManus said.

“It's also blatantly unfair and unjust, especially considering the relatively good shape of our reservoirs and the deep snowpack still in the Sierras,” he said.

Still, if the state endures another extremely dry spring, water deliveries could again drop below current expectations.

“The Department of Water Resources is working with its state and federal partners to balance the needs of communities, agriculture and the environment should dry conditions continue this spring,” Nemeth said.

“Recent actions taken by DWR are intended to preserve water in Lake Oroville specifically to allow for additional flexibility for fish protections in the spring including Feather River pulse flows to enhance spring-run juvenile salmon survival during March and April,” she said.

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