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The Central Valley Water Project has cut agricultural water allocations to zero.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced an update Wednesday to the Central Valley Project water supply allocation for municipal and industrial water service and agricultural contractors.
The initial CVP water supply allocation was announced in February and since then hydrologic conditions have degraded.
According to Reclamation, the 2021 water year for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin is currently the driest since 1977. Between the April 1 and May 1 forecasts, there was a 685,000 acre-feet reduction in the projected natural flow to the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, and American rivers.
Allocations for municipal and industrial contractors have been reduced from 55 percent in February, to 25 percent of historic use and CVP agricultural water service contractors has been reduced to zero.
In response to the new allocations, Westlands Water District in Fresno, is prohibiting all outdoor use of District M&I water, including landscape watering. In addition, the District is also requesting that water users voluntarily reduce in-door consumption by 25%.
“Reclamation’s inability to make water available for irrigation and ability to make only a small amount of water available for domestic use in the second year of drought is one more reminder that the State’s water supply infrastructure is inadequate. The Central Valley Project was originally designed and constructed to supply water through even extended droughts. However, post-construction increased demands, particularly resulting from ineffective implementation of environmental laws, have created a circumstance where basic human water supply needs cannot be met,” Tom Birmingham, Westlands general manager.
Over the last 10 years, Westlands and other south-of-Delta agricultural service and water repayments contractors have received a 100% allocation of water only once and have received a 0% allocation two times.
