Standing on the grassy plateau where water is piped onto his property, Josh Davy wished his feet were wet and his irrigation ditch full.
Three years ago, when he sank everything he had into 66 acres of irrigated pasture in Shasta County, Davy thought he’d drought-proofed his cattle operation.
With 60% of the state now in extreme drought conditions, state officials are warning water-right holders that they should expect more curtailments during peak irrigation season in June and July.
In a statement last week, the state Division of Water Rights said “curtailments are expected to increase progressively through the spring and summer and continue through the early fall until significant precipitation occurs.”
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.
On a recent day in the San Joaquin Valley, the rain falling outside was cause for celebration for Aaron Fukuda.
“For us, water is a mood,” Fukuda, president of the Tulare Irrigation District, said over the phone.
As a third consecutive dry year sets in on California, drought has become a source of stress and anxiety for farmers and communities. But rain brings happiness. If only the rain came more often, Fukuda stated.
Federal and state water agencies have issued an urgency change to conserve more water in Lake Oroville and Shasta Lake.
District 1 Rep. Doug LaMalfa announced Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and California Department of Water Resources have issued a temporary urgency change petition. It will be in effect now through June 30.
The urgency petition allows the State Water Project and Central Valley Project to release less water through the Delta, in order to conserve stored water at reservoirs including Shasta Lake, Lake Oroville and Folsom Lake.
Last Friday’s report that California’s snowpack is just 38% of normal underscores the importance for Tulare County to not only take the drought more seriously, but to brace for drier winters to become the rule rather than the exception.
Two Tulare County irrigation water agencies aren’t waiting around to see how the state will cope with the current and future drought and are taking steps to secure more water storage in the Kaweah Subbasin. Tulare Irrigation District (TID) and Consolidated Peoples Ditch Company (CPDC) purchased 260 acres in December 2020 near McKay Point, where the Kaweah River forks into the Lower Kaweah and St. John’s rivers near Lemon Cove, to build a reservoir capable of storing 8,000 acre feet of water.
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.
The US Bureau of Reclamation announced last month that irrigation districts accounting for farmers across California’s Central Valley would receive a zero-water allocation from the Central Valley Project as early-year dryness weighs on anticipated water supply. No water is allocated for irrigation north and south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta, including off the Sacramento river, according to the 23 February announcement. Additional allocations will be announced in May.
No rain or snow in January and February certainly added to the drought in California. L.A. Times reporter Ian James reported on Feb. 24 that many farmers in the federal Central Valley Project will not receive water from the federal system this year. In mid-February, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced a zero-water allocation for many irrigation districts that supply farmers throughout the Central Valley. Makes one wonder: Where our food will be grown?
With California entering a third year of drought and its reservoirs at low levels, the federal government has announced plans to deliver minimal amounts of water through the Central Valley Project, putting many farmers on notice that they should prepare to receive no water from the system this year.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the project’s dams and canals, announced a zero-water allocation for irrigation districts that supply many farmers across the Central Valley. Cities that receive water from the project in the Central Valley and parts of the Bay Area were allocated 25% of their historical water use.
