Reclamation maximizes water supply allocations for Central Valley Project

Central Valley Project Contractors have received good news. The Bureau of Reclamation has announced the initial allocation for water deliveries will be twice what the initial allocation was in 2024, a year with similar hydrology.

In addition, the Trump administration is investing more than $315.5 million to create new water storage at the future Sites Reservoir and at the existing San Luis Reservoir.

In the announcement, Reclamation shared they were doing all they could to maximize deliveries.

“Reclamation, as directed through President Trump’s Executive Order 14181, has worked to maximize water supply, particularly for south-of-Delta contracts. Reclamation continues its dedicated efforts to deliver more water and produce more hydropower as a commitment to California farmers and communities. Reclamation will continue to maintain full pumping whenever possible at the Jones Pumping Plant to move water to parts of California where it is needed most and provides the greatest economic value to the entire country.”

Water supply allocations for the Central Valley Project are based on an estimate of water available for delivery and reflect reservoir storage, precipitation, and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, as well as contractor-rescheduled water from the last water year.

“Recent atmospheric rivers and the good condition of most of our reservoirs going into this water year have benefited our water supply outlook; however, the San Joaquin Basin has experienced critically dry conditions this winter,” saidCalifornia-Great Basin Regional Director Karl Stock. “Initial allocations reflect this significant variation across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.”

Officials continue to be cautious as the 2025 water year has been somewhat inconsistent so far with wild weather swings between very wet to exceptionally dry. Reclamation says they will continue to review conditions and make updates as new information and data are analyzed, and assumptions are adjusted. The following initial Central Valley Project water supply allocations are:

North-of-Delta Contractors

Sacramento River

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total.
• Municipal and industrial water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total.
• Sacramento River Settlement Contractors’ water supply is based upon settlement of claimed senior water rights. The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their Settlement Contracts, which allows for 100% of their contract water supply.

American River

• M&I water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta who are serviced by Folsom Reservoir on the American River are allocated 100% of their contract total.

In-Delta Contractors

• M&I water service and repayment contractors who are serviced directly from the Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total.

South-of-Delta Contractors

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are allocated 35% of their contract total.
• M&I water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are allocated 75% of their historical use, or public health and safety needs, whichever is greater.
• San Joaquin River Settlement Contractors and San Joaquin Exchange Contractors’ water supply is based upon settlement/exchange of claimed senior water rights. The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their contracts, which allows for 100% of their contract supply.
• In addition to this allocation, CVP contractors south-of-Delta are expected to reschedule approximately 180,000 acre-feet of unused allocated water from 2024 for use in 2025.

Friant Division Contractors

• Friant Division contractors’ water supply is delivered from Millerton Reservoir on the upper San Joaquin River via the Madera and Friant-Kern canals. The first 800,000 acre-feet of available water supply is considered Class 1; Class 2 is considered the next amount of available water supply up to 1.4 million acre-feet. The Friant Division water supply allocation is 45% of Class 1 and 0% of Class 2.

Wildlife Refuges

• The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their contracts, which allows for 100% of contract supply for wildlife refuges (Level 2), both north- and south-of-Delta.

Reclamation reserves about 83,000 acre-feet of water in San Luis Reservoir that is attributed to a drought reserve pool and is not considered available for water supply allocations in non-critical years. Further, Reclamation recognizes around 180,000 acre-feet of previous year water rescheduled by Central Valley Project contractors for use this water year. This rescheduled water, representing enough to support around an additional 10% south-of-Delta irrigation water service and repayment contract allocation, is not considered available for current year water supply allocation, though it may be used by these contractors this year.