Photo is from recent dewatering effort on canal
With the announcement Friday by the US Bureau of Reclamation estimating they can deliver only 336,000 acre ft of water to the San Joaquin Exchange Contractors due to the drought,those contractors will now likely make a call for San Joaquin River this year to make up for the low volume.
In 1939, the so-called Exchange Contractors around the Los Banos area agreed to ‘exchange’ their San Joaquin River supply for water delivered by the federal government from north of the Delta. The agreement calls for 650,000 acre ft of water in a critical dry year like this one.
In a letter dated February 15, the Bureau’s regional manager Michael Jackson says they can promise just 336,000 acre ft based on Feb 1 conditions. “Reclamation can allocate 40 percent… contract entitlement at this initial stage of the water year” says the letter to the Exchange Contractors.
“That will mean the Exchange Contractors can call on San Joaquin River stored behind Friant dam” says Visalia water consultant Dennis Keller. But according to Keller the Bureau estimates there is just 94,000 acre/ft of Class 1 water available above Fraint Dam so far this year.
Precipitation in the upper San Joaquin has been less than some parts of Northern California that were hit with wet storms in the past two weeks.
That would leave Friant Water District contractors along the east side of Fresno Tulare and Kern Counties with a “zero supply“ this year, says Keller.
“We have thousands of acres of trees and vines that are at risk” confirms general manager Ron Jacobsma of Friant Water Users. The district has 1 million acres of fertile farmland dependent on the canal.
Biggest Loser
It is the largest citrus, dairy, nut and grape growing region in the world. With billions of dollars invested a zero supply of water could turn this place from a Garden of Eden into the Biggest Loser.
Jacobsma says some of the water stored at Millerton Lake needs to be retained to satisfy riparian contracts as well as set some aside for towns like Orange Cove and Lindsay for drinking water use. They need to save enough,about 40,000 acre ft , to be kept in the 152 mile Friant Kern Canal to pressurize it. Besides that, there are system losses with stored water.
In any case with the Exchange Contractors being 300,000 acre feet short and less than 100,000 acre ft available from Millerton – Friant is long way from having water to deliver to its 15,000 farmers this year.
“First we need several good storms in both northern California and in the San Joaquin watershed” to allow local contractors to keep some water that falls above Fresno. There has been better storm activity in northern California in the past two weeks.
“Even if Friant sends 100,000 acre ft of stored water to the Exchange Contractors you are looking at a 40% loss as it moves down the river” notes Dennis Keller. They would end up with far less.
Jacobsma says they are doing all they can to use alternative supplies this year with 2 south Valley Friant districts pumping about 40,000 acre/ft of banked groundwater back into the Friant Kern Canal to use later in the season when they really need water. “They are paying to run the canal backwards.”
Jacobsma says federal and state authorities must allow more export of water south when there is extra water like it was during those good storms recently. ”We got about 5000 acre/ft pumped south but the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act shut that down “ says Jacobsma
Jacobsma was among 15 ag leaders to meet with President Obama last week spending some time with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to plead their case for increased money for infrastructure to store and move water and lobbying on lifting pumping restrictions south of the Delta.
Jamcobsma point out that Fraint lost hundreds of thousands of acre feet water “that spilled in 2010” to the ocean because of lack of storage that could be there now for years like this.
Lobbying Effort
Regarding the Endangered Species Act’s affect on pumping restrictions Jacobsma argues that the President could issue an executive order to temporally waive enforcement to allow the pumps to operate when there are good flows.
This would be the first time ever that a state drought has meant there was not enough water to deliver to the Exchange Contractors and clearly the first time that the Friant Kern Canal did not operate since it was built in 1951.
The government did allow the saving of 20,000 acre ft in Millerton that will not be sent down the river this year for restoration purposes and it seem clear the restoration effort will be postponed as the state struggles with record low rainfall.