May 1,2014
Instead of water from Millerton Lake flowing south down the Friant Kern Canal to irrigate farms in Tulare County – water from the dam may be released down the river to wet fields in the Los Banos area as soon as next week. With no word out of the federal Bureau of Reclamation on increasing the water allotment to the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors, that group’s executive director Steve Chedester says they are poised to “make a call” on river water to be released from Friant Dam next week. The Exchange Contractors have priority on San Joaquin River water unless the Bureau supplies them with an alternative as they always have until this year’s drought. The contractors are guaranteed 75% of their contract supply, even in a dry year.
“We’ve been meeting with all the parties for about a month including Friant, Edison and PG&E” who manage high elevation reservoirs above Millerton, and” this release down the river is ready to go” adds Chedester.
By contract, the Bureau has an obligation to deliver water from north of the Delta or at a last resort from the San Joaquin River and due to lack of any word from the Bureau ”we are ready to take 50,000 to 60,000 acre feet out of Millerton in May ” to meet their farmers water needs.
Pictured; Farmland around Porterville fed by Friant Kern Canal
To meet their contract agreement the Exchange Contractors would drain Millerton this summer to meet their shortfall (about 300,000 acre ft) leaving 24 Friant water districts from Orange Cove to Exeter down to Arvin with a “zero allocation.”
Economic losses have been estimated in the billions of dollars if the 150 mile Friant Kern does not run this year. Trees would be pulled from tens of thousands of acres says Citrus Mutual and those lands would have no ag production for years. To make matter worse – banks are likely to pull financing for some farmers with all this uncertainty.
A call the Bureau office in Sacramento Thursday has resulted in this reply:’”Things are dynamic right now but we expect no announcement this week.”
Tulare County farmer Tom Barcellos has a few choice words for the Bureau’s non-response.”They suck.”
Chedester says complicated agreements are making it difficult for the Bureau to release more water citing a decision last week to supply 100% to Settlement Contractors on the Feather River as one example.
Friant’s Jacobsma says if the Bureau would allow the Exchange Contractors to receive their 300,000 acre ft out of Shasta, Friant could keep the estimated 150,000 to 200,00 acre ft it has stored above Friant and at least meter out a little water to keep trees alive in what is expected to be a scorching summer.