Transfers Continued from Page 1
YoloCounty, grows rice andalmonds and leases row-crop ground in the Dunnigan Water District, which receives irrigation water from the TCCA. Schaad, who serves as president of the Dunnigan district board, said he plans to idle about 280 acres thatwouldhavebeen plantedwith rice. He said the districtmay benefit from purchased transfer water this season. “We’ve been able to secure and pur- chase—and we hope that the water is there when we need it—an equivalent of about a third of what the district used last year,” he said, adding that the con- tracts would total about 4,500 acre-feet. “Growers within the water district would have to make up the difference with groundwater, if it’s available.” The governor ’s declarat ion al so prioritizes transfers that store water for the cold-water pool behind Lake Shasta for fish species, and proposes a $200 million investment to restore conveyance facilities. David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, said water transfers “could be really helpful for cold water pool management.” Transfers, he said, “can also help other parts of the state that needwater, and that includes, obviously, farmers.” Guy said much transfer activity is be- ing proposed on the Sacramento River, largely to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota
Water Authority, which represents 27wa- ter agencies on the west side of the San JoaquinValley, plus SanBenito andSanta Clara counties. Scott Petersen, director of water pol- icy for the SLDMWA, said the agen- cy has been discussing transfers with Sacramento River senior water rights holders and that he expects transfers “will play a key role for communities throughout the San Joaquin, San Benito and Santa Clara valleys.” “Many of the growers inside of our member agency service area are in a re- ally dire situation,” Petersen said. As in the western Sacramento Valley, water contractors in theSLDMWAservice area have been told they have no access to a 5% allocation announced earlier in the year. “Many of our growers def ini tely need water now,” Petersen said. “Folks are fal lowing acreage, and we have some reports of people pulling out or- chards already.” He said the SLDMWA is negotiating contracts with the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors. The purchased transfer water would be moved later in the year, and the water price would be almost doublewhat it was last year, about $575 an acre-foot. The governor ’s drought declara- tion, Petersen said, contains positive attributes such as the streamlining of
transfers and investments in water in- frastructure. But, he added, the decla- ration also grants additional authority to the State Water Resources Control Board that “could have pretty signifi- cant implications on the availability of water, depending on what conditions may be imposed on the operations of the projects.” Petersen said he anticipates “quite a substantial amount of fallowing” of farm- land in the western San Joaquin Valley. “At the height of the 2014-15 drought, there was upwards of 500,000 to 550,000 acres that were fallowed throughout California. I wouldn’t be particular- ly surprised to see numbers similar to that,” he said, adding that the severe shor tages make implement ing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act more challenging. “We should have already made in- vestments in projects to build resilience to drought,” Petersen said. “That being said, we have an opportunity to invest in projects now. I believe there is a sense of urgency to finally move (large convey- ance and storage projects) forward to minimize the impacts to communities, people and the environment.” (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
joint powers authority, serves 17 water districts in Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties. “We’re probably purchasing some- where in the neighborhood of 60,000 acre-feet of water collectively, just to prevent a disaster,” Sutton said. The TCCA has water service con- tracts with the CVP and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the project. It started the irrigation season with an allocation of 5% of its contract quantity—later suspended due to on- going dry conditions. That means the authority effectively has no CVP wa- ter allocation for the 150,000 acres it serves, Sutton said. Farmers who have the ability to do so will rely on groundwater, he said. “The other lifeline we have here is water transfers from senior water right holders on the SacramentoRiver,” Sutton said. “We are participating in a signifi- cant amount of transfers, some crop idling and pumping groundwater in lieu of surface water.” An expanded drought declaration for 41 counties, announced this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom, intends to stream- line and expedite the timeline for trans- fer approvals. David Schaad, a farm manager and partner in a family farming business in
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
For the week May 6 - May 12, 2021 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)
YEAR
3.0
THIS YEAR
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (70)
FRESNO (80)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
TEMECULA (62)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
1.50 1.42 1.27 18
1.99 1.57 1.49 33
2.20 1.98 1.75 25
1.98 1.88 1.61 24
1.89 1.71 1.47 27
2.29 1.75 1.57 45
1.92 1.83 1.56 22
1.52 1.61 1.14 32
1.05 1.35 1.20 -13
1.98 1.99 1.99 0
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
May 19, 2021 Ag Alert 15
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