Tag Archive for: Central Valley Project

Feds Defend Permanent Water Contracts to Benefit Agriculture

/in , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Nicholas Iovino

Defending the decision to give farm irrigation districts permanent access to low-cost, federally pumped water in California, a Justice Department lawyer urged a federal judge Thursday to flush a Native American tribe’s lawsuit against the endless entitlements. The Hoopa Valley Tribe sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in August, claiming the Trump administration’s conversion of 14 time-limited contracts for Central Valley Project water into permanent deals violated a host of federal laws.

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Growers See Initial Allocation of 10% for 2021 Water Year

/in , /by /The Sun Gazette

While deciding the final allocation for growers who gather their water from the Friant-Kern Canal is months away, things early on are not looking good. The California Department of Water Resources announced on Dec. 1 an initial state water project allocation of 10% of requested supply for the 2021 water year. Initial allocations are based on conservative assumptions regarding hydrology and factors such as reservoir storage.

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Water Year Starts With Concerns About La Niña

/in , , /by /Ag Alertby Christine Souza

Despite little precipitation and a small snowpack in the 2020 water year, which ended Sept. 30, California weathered the year on water stored in reservoirs during previous years’ storms. Going into 2021, farmers note that weather officials predict a La Niña climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which has brought drought conditions in the past.

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Ruling Avoids Additional CVP Supply Cuts

/in , , /by /Ag Alertby Christine Souza

In the ongoing struggle over management of water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system, farmers who rely on deliveries from the federal Central Valley Project have earned an initial victory from a federal judge, pending further legal action later this year.

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California Officials Deliver Another “Water-Block” Over Shasta Dam

/in , /by /The Sun (Central Valley)by Wayne Western

The State of California revealed the latest trick up their sleeve in regards to slowing or stopping water delivery to millions of Californians through the Central Valley Project earlier this month. The State Water Resources Control Board has rejected the Sacramento River Temperature Plan by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The Temperature Plan has been months in the making in order to coincide with this year’s hydrology.

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Even in Dry Year, Valley Farmers See a Bump in Water Allocation

/in , , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sunby Alex Tavlian

Farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta received some welcome news on Tuesday.

After a set of spring storms in April, water allocations from the Central Valley Project are increasing almost across the board at a rate of 5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced.

Water users on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley will see a five percent increase in water allocation – from 15 to 20 percent of their contracted amount.

Municipal and industrial users, similarly, saw a five percent bump to 70 percent of their contracted amount of water.

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Newsom Accomplishes Rare Feat: A Water Plan No One Likes

/in , , /by /San Joaquin Valley Sunby Alex Tavlian

In the century-long “us-versus-them” mentality of California water, a plan released by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Water Resources last week achieved something perhaps never accomplished before in the Golden State’s water industry. It incited universal scorn. First, as is always the case, some recent history on California’s water infrastructure. Much of California’s surface water – that is, water captured from rainfall, stored in dams and reservoirs, and transported via canals and aqueducts – is delivered via two massive projects: the Central Valley Project, operated by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, and the State Water Project, operated by the State of California’s Department of Water Resources.

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Bureau of Reclamation Completes First Group of Congressionally-Mandated California Central Valley Project Contract Conversions

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Bureau of Reclamation executed congressionally-mandated contract conversions last Friday, with Central Valley Project contractors pursuant to the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. These contracts provide water to families, farms and communities in the respective California contractors’ service areas. Today’s contract conversions are the first group of more than 75 repayment contract conversions requested by CVP contractors.

“Completing these contracts is a big win-win for our contractors and the American public,” said Ernest Conant, California-Great Basin’s regional director. “The federal government will receive early payment of over $200 million, which Congress directed should be used for much-needed storage projects.”

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Westlands Water District Gets Permanent U.S. Contract for Massive Irrigation Deliveries

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

The Interior Department on Friday awarded the nation’s largest farm water district a permanent entitlement to annual irrigation deliveries that amount to roughly twice as much water as the nearly 4 million residents of Los Angeles use in a year.

Gaining a permanent contract for so much cheap Central Valley Project water represents a major milestone for Westlands Water District, which supplies some of the state’s wealthiest growers and has long-standing ties to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

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Farmers Review Impact of Federal, State Water Actions

/in , /by /Ag Alert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

After a week that saw President Donald Trump visit Bakersfield to pledge more water for Central Valley farmers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration respond with a lawsuit, farmers and water agencies looked for ways to continue work on voluntary agreements intended to ease California’s water disputes.

Trump announced his administration had finalized new federal rules to guide operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. The lawsuit filed by the state the next day asserts that new biological opinions prepared by federal agencies lack safeguards for protected species and their habitat.

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