To protect Californians’ health and safety from more severe water shortages in the months ahead, the California Department of Water Resources on Friday took actions to conserve the state’s water resources.
As a result, everyone – farmers, fish, and people in cities and towns – will get less water, the agency said.
Except for a small amount of carryover water from 2013, customers of the State Water Project will get no deliveries in 2014 if current dry conditions persist and deliveries to agricultural districts with longstanding water rights in the Sacramento Valley may be cut 50 percent – the maximum permitted by contract – depending upon future snow survey results.
“Today’s action is a stark reminder that California’s drought is real,” said Gov. Jerry Brown. “We’re taking every possible step to prepare the state for the continuing dry conditions we face.”
The Department of Water Resources said its actions are in direct response to Brown's drought state of emergency, in which the governor directed the agency and the State Water Resources Control Board to act to modify requirements that hinder conservation of currently stored water and allow flexibility within the state’s water system to maintain operations and meet environmental needs.
“The harsh weather leaves us little choice,” said Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. “If we are to have any hope of coping with continued dry weather and balancing multiple needs, we must act now to preserve what water remains in our reservoirs.”
The agency pointed out that almost all areas served by the State Water Project have other sources of water, such as groundwater, local reservoirs and other supplies.
Never before in the 54-year history of the State Water Project has the Department of Water Resources announced a zero allocation to all 29 public water agencies that buy from the State Water Project. These deliveries help supply water to 25 million Californians and roughly 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland.
Deliveries to senior water rights holders in the Sacramento Valley – all agricultural irrigation districts – were last cut in 1992.
The only previous State Water Project zero percent allocation was in 1991 for agriculture, but cities that year received 30 percent of requested allocations.
“Carryover” water stored by local agencies and water transferred from willing sellers to buyers in critically short areas still will be delivered, as will emergency supplies for drinking, sanitation and fire protection.
“It is our duty to give State Water Project customers a realistic understanding of how much water they will receive from the Project,” said Director Cowin. “Simply put, there’s not enough water in the system right now for customers to expect any water this season from the project.”
The Department of Water Resources also has asked the State Water Resources Control Board to adjust water permit terms that control State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project operations in order to preserve dwindling supplies in upstream reservoirs for farms, fisheries, and cities and towns as the drought continues.
While additional winter storms may provide a limited boost to reservoir storage and water deliveries, it would need to rain and snow heavily every other day from now until May to get the state back to average annual rain and snowfall. Even then, California still would be in a drought, because normally wet December and January have been critically dry – and follow a record dry 2013 and a dry 2012.
This historic announcement reflects the severity of California's drought. After two previous dry years, 2014 is shaping up as the driest in state history.
Storage in key reservoirs now is lower than at this time in 1977, one of the two previous driest water years on record. Thursday's Sierra snow survey found the snowpack’s statewide water content at only 12 percent of average for this time of year.
Regulatory actions sought
In a formal petition delivered earlier this week, the Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation asked the State Water Resources Control Board to adjust requirements for freshwater outflow in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in order to preserve stored water that may be needed later in the year for health and safety needs and to provide cold water upstream for protection of salmon and other species.
Water from Clear Lake flows into the Bay Delta through Cache Creek.
The state maintains that the existing Bay Delta water quality standards, contained in Water Rights Decision 1641, were not written with these extraordinarily dry conditions in mind.
The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation petition seeks adjustment to the water quality and flow requirements for February, along with a request to establish a framework to make further requests and adjustments as the drought evolves.
The petitioners note that they do not believe there is an adequate water supply to meet all obligations under the State Water Resources Control Board's Water Rights Decision 1641.
Without adjustment, “there exists a substantial risk that by late spring 2014 and into 2015 the Projects' major reservoirs will be drafted to dead pool or near dead pool levels at which point reservoir release capacities will be substantially diminished.” Dead pool level refers to the condition when water can no longer be released from a reservoir using gravity.
The petition seeks to minimize adverse impacts to the cold water stored in reservoirs for downstream fisheries and to allow for some level of salinity control later in the season. Otherwise, water project operators risk losing entirely the ability to control salinity in the Delta.
“As Gov. Brown has directed, we will work closely with our state, federal and local partners to meet health and safety needs and deliver what water is available to critically dry areas,” said Cowin. “Even though it’s dry everywhere, California agencies have traditionally been willing to transfer any water they can spare to more needy areas. Today is a stark reminder that we all have to save every drop we can in our homes and places of work. Conservation is always important, but today it’s an absolute necessity.”
In addition to the actions announced Friday, the Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday decided to preserve rescheduled water supplies that Central Valley Project farmers had banked as a hedge against dry conditions.
Cowin praised the decision, saying: “In an increasingly complex situation, affirming the ability of water districts to preserve water supplies as a hedge against drought is good water management.”
The federal Central Valley Project, which supplies much of the state’s agricultural water, is expected to announce its initial allocation next month. It also will be dismal, especially for irrigation-dependent farms on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.
Water-short valley farmers are expected to fallow thousands of acres, sending negative economic ripples through communities dependent on the agricultural economy. Farmers also will pump increasing amounts of groundwater, further depleting overtapped aquifers.
Gov. Brown directed the Department of Water Resources to monitor groundwater levels, land subsidence and land fallowing as the drought persists.
”We need everyone in every part of the state to conserve water,” said Gov. Brown in his Jan. 22 State of the State address.
To learn easy, practical ways to save water, visit http://www.saveourh2o.org/ .