April 15,2018-
Friant contractors get 100% of Class 1 supply but canal stands at 50% capacity
Kaweah watershed at 51% of average
Friant contractors got some good news earlier this month. They will receive 100% of their Class 1 water supply this summer due to the late March and April storms this spring.
Friant Kern Canal is running at 50% capacity this month as water level nears a bridge in Tulare County in this April 11 photo.
April is the traditional end of significant storms to drop their load in the Sierra enabling farmers to take stock of their upcoming supply they can count on for the hot summer months to come.
For now some reservoirs like Millerton have too much in storage enabling contractors to get extra flood water delivered to their canals at bargain prices.
The San Joaquin River Restoration program made 38,000 acre feet of unreleased restoration flows available to Class 2 contractors this month,
Contractors depended on precipitation in the upper San Joaquin River watershed above Fresno, to irrigate a million acres of cropland along the eastern edge of the Valley – watered by the 152-mile Friant Kern Canal.
Through early March eastside farmers water supply outlook looked grim with Huntington Lake having received only 11 inches of precip as of early March. But by April 12 Huntington had seen 35 inches for the water year (see chart).
But Friant contractors, particularly south of Tulare, face a problem this year as ground subsidence, due to drought years over pumping, has effectively constrained the volume of water that can be moved into southern Tulare and Kern counties by half or more.
In some locations the key canal’s capacity has dropped to 1,750 cubic feet per second, down from its intended capacity of 4,000 cfs.
The upshot is that when a farmer really needs that water – it may not be there.
But help may be one the way.
The Water Supply and Water Quality Bond Act of 2018 to be voted on electorate in November, includes improvements to the Friant Kern Canal and other Friant water interconnections to the tune $750 million. It intends to restore lost capacity, pays for groundwater recharge programs, water conservation and possibly new water conveyance in the Friant area.
Kaweah Watershed News
Over on the Kaweah River watershed the picture is not as bright as to the north but lots better than it looked in early March says watermaster Mark Larsen.
“Back a few weeks ago it looked a duster” says Larsen. But now the outlook has improved to about a 51% of average water supply expected this water-year.
Larsen says Kaweah Lake should at least 75% full in coming weeks and may fill to capacity depending on when famers downstream need their irrigation water, likely in mid to late May he says.
That will be good news for recreational users of the lake in coming months.
Larsen says Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District is running surplus Friant water down the basin’s channels to replenish the groundwater right now, made available due to Millerton’s lack of capacity.
In other water news, Larsen and all Valley water agencies are taking note of an April 10 vote by the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to fund two-thirds of the cost to build both tunnels proposed by Governor Brown – known as
the California Water Fix. Larsen says the importance for our area is that improvements in the Delta will help both supplies and flexibility of exchanges in the San Joaquin Valley.