California agricultural customers of the federal government’s Central Valley Project (CVP) will likely receive no water for the second straight year, according to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announcement dated Feb. 27.
According to the Sacramento Bee, this announcement hits especially hard in the San Joaquin Valley, where water is extremely limited. Thousands of acres have already or will be fallowed in 2015.
“It’s going to really hurt. It’s going to affect their communities,” said Carl Janzen, retired dairy farmer and chairman of the San Joaquin Valley’s Friant Water Authority board, to KQED News. “There’s going to be no packinghouse workers, no field workers. No one’s buying ag equipment; no one’s buying fuel; no one’s buying groceries.”
In a press release, the California Farm Water Coalition stated, “Last year, UC Davis economists reported on direct and indirect costs, with farmers, ranchers and dairy operators losing $1 billion in revenue. Additional emergency pumping and other economic costs pushed the total to $2.2 billion. Farmers fallowed 428,000 acres of productive farmland. ... The economists also estimated 17,100 farm workers would lose their seasonal or full-time work on valley farms.”
KQED reported that many of the CVP reservoirs have more water now than they did a year ago, and still more water than they did in the most severe droughts of 1976-1977 and 1992. But the bureau argues the CVP’s service population has grown, and it is now under more regulation – such as managing water for endangered and threatened wildlife habitat – than it was during earlier drier periods.
Ron Milligan, CVP operations manager, told the Bee that 2014 was bad, but 2015 could be worse. A very wet spring could mitigate drought conditions and may allow the CVP to deliver water later in the year.
ABC News reported that farmers in San Juan valley received 10 percent of their requested water amount in 2009 and 20 percent in 2013, but two consecutive years of no allocations is unprecedented.
According to The Sentinel, the State Water Project has announced it can provide farmers 20 percent of their requested water. That is up since the California Department of Water Resources’ January announcement of 15 percent.
Doug Carlson, State Water Project spokesman, told The Sentinel the state program, unlike the federal CVP, is primarily geared toward cities and is based strictly on water conditions.
Because of the drought, farmers have been pumping groundwater to keep their crops alive. Groundwater infrastructure isn’t cheap; according to ABC, Paul Betancourt spent $40,000 last year to renovate wells on his 765-acre Fresno County farm.
Groundwater also comes with a geological price, according to the Central Valley Business Times. In Merced County, areas are sinking at a rate of a foot per year.
The Times said Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, has presented three proposals to the state Legislature that would help farmers in the San Juan valley.
Assembly Bill (AB) 1242 would block the State Water Board from adopting any more plans that may harm aquifers.
AB 1243 would assist local governments and districts in constructing systems to put water back into the ground. AB 1244 would allow farmers to build small on-farm water storage ponds. PD
—Summarized by Progressive Dairyman staff from cited sources
