Currently, no water is running through pipes and canals for some farmers in Northern California.
It’s not even June.
Farmers there have experienced this before, but the concern of that happening is starting to trickle into the Coachella Valley.
California walnut grower Tim McCord is at the dry end of the spigot, facing a zero-water allocation from the Central Valley Project, which is supposed to deliver to his local San Benito County Water District.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said McCord.
The farmer is not just concerned about his orchard; he’s also frustrated that he owes substantial water-related taxes to the district, and, if water is eventually delivered, he’ll be charged $309.75 per acre-foot — more than in non-drought years.
California would pay farmers not to plant thousands of acres of land as part of a $2.9 billion plan announced Tuesday aimed at letting more water flow through the state’s major rivers and streams to help restore the unique habitat in one of North America’s largest estuaries.
The agreement, signed Tuesday between state and federal officials and some of California’s biggest water agencies, would result in about 35,000 acres of rice fields left unused — or about 6% of the state’s normal crop each year, according to the California Rice Commission.
The school is disappearing.
Westside Elementary opened its doors nearly a century ago here in the San Joaquin Valley, among the most productive agricultural regions on earth. As recently as 1995, nearly 500 students filled its classrooms. Now 160 students attend and enrollment is falling fast.
This was where the children of farmworkers learned to read and write, often next to the children of the farm owners who employed their parents.
On pace to be the driest January-February on record, signaling a third straight year of drought, local water authorities are begging the state to release more water for farmers this summer or at least begin building capacity to withstand future droughts.
On Feb. 23, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced its initial 2022 water supply allocations for Central Valley Project contractors, including the water agencies which operate the Friant-Kern Canal to the east and Delta-Mendota Canal to the west. Allocations are based on an estimate of water available for delivery to CVP water users and reflect current reservoir storages, precipitation and snowpack in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada.
It’s been said that California is confronting a 21st century water crisis armed with 20th century infrastructure and 19th century laws. That’s indisputably true.
California’s water rights system was created in the latter half of the 1800s. It has changed surprisingly little since then. In a state that prides itself on environmental innovation, it’s alarming that California’s calcified water rights system is out of sync with current needs.
A fairly decent start to this year’s rainy season quickly dried up.
The Central Coast of California is a story of ebbs and flows, wet years and drought.
From man-made reservoirs to underground aquifers, we need to store rain that falls in wet years to help supply the never-ending demand for water during the dry years. But it’s a constant battle to make sure there’s enough set aside to go around.
In an experiment a decade in the making, biologists are releasing hatchery salmon onto flooded Northern California rice fields, seeking to replenish endangered fish species while simultaneously benefiting the farmers’ business model.
At a time when environmentalists are often pitted against agribusiness in California’s water wars, conservation scientists and rice farmers are working together, trying to reclaim the great flood plains of the Sacramento River for salmon habitat.
Their task is daunting. California’s wetlands have all but disappeared, converted into farms and cities in one of the great engineering feats, or environmental crimes, of the 20th century.
What happened — or didn’t — weatherwise during the last two months starkly reminds us of the erratic nature of California’s vital water supply.
After months of severe drought, the state saw record-shattering storms in December, creating a hefty mountain snowpack while replenishing seriously depleted reservoirs. But January, historically a month of heavy precipitation, was bone-dry.
With climate change, California’s wet periods have become briefer, albeit sometimes more intense, and the dry periods have become longer, making the state’s elaborate water storage and conveyance systems less able to cope with precipitation patterns.
The snowpack which feeds into Pine Flat Dam is a healthy one.
It’s a little above average at this point, according to the first snow survey of the season conducted by the Kings River Water Association.
“What we’re told is this is the kind of year, the kind of weather pattern where we get wet sequences followed by extended dry sequences and that’s exactly what we’ve seen this season,” says Kings River Watermaster Steve Haugen.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
