Kaweah Lake To Fill By June

What a difference a year makes. The Kaweah watershed delivered just 7 percent of average runoff last year but this year expect around 84 percent says Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District (KDWCD)  General Manager Mark Larsen.”We have enough water in the lake right now to do a pre-irrigation flood release down the Kaweah /St Johns, to avoid over spilling the runoff later.” The water release is reaching Visalia helping to recharge  the parched aquifer for the first time in years.

The 10-day Kaweah Lake flood release of around 25,000 acre-feet is being married to some of the flood release coming down the Friant Kern Canal from Millerton, adds Larsen. Over 100,000 acre-feet of water is being released from Friant Dam to allow room for the expected snowmelt. KDWCD is a Friant contractor.

”We have both these supplies coming down the river right now” he notes, offering a bigger impact.

At Lake Kaweah the 185,000 acre-ft reservoir is expected to fill by early June says Corp of Engineers Sr Park Manager Matt Murphy. According to the state, Kaweah Lake storage is 162% of historical  average for this date reflecting a nice run-up in flows from mid- February on. Today storage is at 77,000 acre-feet.

Farmers are of course happy but it also ”should be good news for boaters, rafters and fishermen.” expects Murphy. The Corp is permitting four white water rafting companies this year who will be offering trips down the Kaweah this spring. The river should be runable into mid-June.

The lake will fill all the way back past Slick Rock says Murphy, inundating the popular Cobble Knoll Trail. The site is the future home of an 18-hole Frisbee golf course.Murphy says that won’t be put in place this summer with the lake level so high. The lake will also flood boat ramp two but boaters can access the ramp at Slick Rock.

Murphy says the lake’s water supply has been given a boost by above average rainfall that totals nearly 16 inches lakeside this year compared to an average of around 9 inches.

Larsen says the Kaweah watershed, draining around 850 square miles  has an average runoff of 430,000 acre-feet. The drainage starts at 12,000 ft and is one of the shortest drainages in the US measured from its  headwaters to the lake. An 84% supply this year would be  in the neighborhood 361,000 acre-feet, “The lake turns over 2 1/2 to 3 times a year.”

Te reservoir irrigates around 500,000 acres of farmland around Visalia creating a rich environment  known as the Kaweah Delta that also nourishes Visalia’s famous oak forest helping to shade and cool the environs here.

Larsen says farmers can expect to get started on their irrigation season between May 9th to the 16th depending on hot it gets. Some are predicting an another hot summer in California in 2016.

What about those promising storms on tap in April? Larsen says while it does look like a wet a spring – the amount of precip expected might be called “icing on the cake” rather than a big boost in supply.

The good news is that “farmers should be able to give those irrigation pumps a rest” allowing the ground water in the region to recover. Levels have been dropping around 8 feet a year for the past few years, he says.