Central Valley Project contractors will receive more water

Central Valley Project Contractors received welcome news last month when the Bureau of Reclamation announced an increase in Central Valley Project 2025 water supply allocations.

“While most of the Central Valley Project contractors are at 100% allocation, we are very pleased to announce an increase in allocations for our south-of-Delta and Friant Division contractors,” said Acting Regional Director Adam Nickels. “Consistent with the intent of Executive Order 14181, we are able to increase south-of Delta agriculture to 40% and Friant Division Class 1 to 100%.”

Based on current hydrology and forecasting, Central Valley Project contractors can expect to receive:

South-of-Delta Contractors

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are increased to 40% from 35% of their contract total. Municipal and industrial water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta remain at 75% of their historical use, or public health and safety needs, whichever is greater.

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 initial Friant Division water supply allocation for Class 1 was increased from 45% to 80% on March 14. Today’s announcement includes a further increase to 100%; Class 2 water remains at 0%.

All other allocation amounts announced on Feb. 25 remain at 100%.

Additionally, around 210,000 acre-feet of previous year water that was rescheduled by Central Valley Project contractors for use this water year. This rescheduled water, represents enough to support around an additional 10% south-of-Delta irrigation water service and repayment contract allocation.