March 18,2016-
Friant Water Authority irrigation districts will get a Bureau of Reclamation water allocation this year for the first time since 2013.
Lower Tule Irrigation District general manager Dan Vink says the Bureau announced today there would be a 30% Class 1 allocation,about 250,000acre-feet, as well as 100,000 acre feet of Class 2 water to make room in Millerton Reservoir to those districts with a Class 2 contract.
Water would be delivered to about 15,000 family farms during the coming irrigation season down the Fiaint Kern Canal including to many growers in Tulare County.
“The Bureau is facing uncertainty over how they will be able to deliver water through the delta to the Exchange Contractors ” explains Vink, a problem he expects will relieve itself as the summer progress.
“We think when its all over we could get a 100% allocation,about 800,000 acre-feet, he predicts.
“Right now its not as much as we would like and for our citrus growers especially – it is the difference between having only enough water to keep trees alive vs having a crop we can sell.”