California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
The Fresno Irrigation District’s (FID) agriculture customers are going to have to wait awhile longer for water.
The District has said they will conserve their available water supply and not offer any March or April agricultural deliveries.
FID will postpone the start of its 2021 water deliveries until early-April due to the dry winter weather conditions and a below-average Sierra Nevada snowpack.
“We have had very little rain and snow in the mountains this winter, and the storm earlier this week added only minor precipitation to the Kings River watershed snowpack, which now stands at around 43% of the April 1 average,” said Bill Stretch, FID General Manager. “Unfortunately, there are no significant weather events in the immediate forecast to indicate a drastic change in water supply conditions.”
The dry outlook was reinforced by the California Department of Water Resources’ updated April through July runoff forecast. Assuming average amounts of precipitation fall during the remainder of the season, DWR predicts the Kings River’s runoff will be roughly 42 percent of normal. If late winter and spring conditions remain dry, Kings River runoff could approach critically-low runoff totals. FID’s Kings River entitlement depends upon each day’s natural river runoff. On February 23, the Bureau of Reclamation announced an initial Central Valley Project Friant Division water supply allocation of 20 percent for Class I and 0 percent for Class II contracts.
