With snowpack at normal, what’s the hold up with Ag water allocation?
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The frustration for farmers continues to grow after recent news of recent water allocation numbers.
The Bureau of Reclamation has announced a 35 percent federal allocation for Central Valley Project recipients, as the California Department of Water Resources has allocated 30 percent of State Water Project requests.
Fresno Co. farmers disappointed after water allocation results
The news comes as the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada sits at or near normal.
While it is an improvement to February’s number of 15 percent allocation for both state and federal recipients, farmers argue that with the current water year allocations should be far greater.
“A 35 percent water supply isn’t enough for all of our crops,” said Joe Del Bosque of Del Bosque Farms.
Del Bosque, who we met at his farmstand just off Interstate 5 in Western Fresno County, says he and other farmers were extremely disappointed with the recent numbers. He tells me with the current snowpack, and recent, and potentially incoming storms, the allocation should have been higher.
“Getting precipitation and so forth and the reservoirs being above average, we were hoping to get about 45 percent to 50 percent. Maybe that was not realistic but that’s kind of what we needed,” he said.
Del Bosque’s farm grows a variety of crops. Those include his almonds and well-known melon program with cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons. However, he says if the allocation figures don’t climb it will hurt more than farmers.
“We’re going to have to cut back our acres and we’re going to have to leave some acreage fallow. That means we’re going to leave some land unplanted,” said Del Bosque, whose operation has been in business since 1985. “That hurts us as a farmer, it hurts our employees, it hurts the communities.”
One potential reason for the allocation shortfall, according to the California Department of Water Resources, is the potential impacts that could be felt on threatened and endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Delta works to move water from Northern California to the southern part of the state. Much of that water moves through the San Joaquin Valley. With endangered and threatened species found near a State Water Project pumping facility in the south Delta, the pumps that work to move that water south have been significantly slowed.
Del Bosque told me he had heard that the impact could be seen for months to come.
As a result, he wants the state and federal government to reassess their current protocols.
“We have to look at those metrics and see if there’s some way that we can find a little flexibility in the system to see if we can still protect the fish but get a little more water through,” he said.
We did reach out to the Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources, but we did not hear back in time for this story.
