California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Thanks to some late spring storms, the Bureau of Reclamation issued updated allocations for Central Valley Project contractors for the 2020 contract year yesterday.
The allocation for south-of-Delta agricultural water service contractors is increased from 15% to 20% of their contract total. Municipal and Industrial water service contractors south-of-Delta are now allocated 70% of their historic use, up from 65%, or health and safety needs, whichever is greater. These allocation adjustments address releases from Folsom Dam during the summer and have no effect on Reclamation’s ability to comply with the court order dated May 11, 2020 in PCFFA v. Ross and CNRA v. Ross.
“Thanks to April precipitation showing a sizeable water supply improvement for the American River watershed, Reclamation is pleased to announce this increased allocation for CVP water contractors south-of-the Delta,” said California-Great Basin Regional Director Ernest Conant. “Friant Division Class 1 contractors are also benefitting from improved hydrologic conditions. Even with the recent gains in water supply, the year as a whole has still been relatively dry. Reclamation will continue to monitor conditions and adjust accordingly. We urge our contractors to continue to exercise conservative use of the resource.”
Friant Division water supply is divided into two classifications: Class 1 and Class 2. 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. Based on improved hydrologic conditions and the forecasted snowmelt runoff in the Upper San Joaquin River Basin, Class 1 allocation is increased from 55% to 60%; Class 2 remains at 0%.
As the water year progresses, changes in hydrology and opportunities to deliver additional water will influence future allocations. Water supply updates are posted at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvp-water/index.html.
