Federal government slashes water deliveries to farms, cities as California drought worsens
California’s water supply got cut again Wednesday, with the federal government reducing allocations to cities and farms as the drought intensified.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that municipal water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project will have this year’s allocations slashed from 55% down to 25% — a level not seen since the drought of 2015.
That could put additional pressure on the municipalities around greater Sacramento that depend on supplies from Folsom Lake, whose water levels have sunk dramatically this spring. The reservoir is at 46% of its usual capacity for late May.
“That raises the stakes,” said Jeffrey Mount, a water management expert at the Public Policy Institute of California. “When we cut water to farms, farms can fallow. You can’t fallow a house.”
The Sacramento Regional Water Authority, which oversees 23 different agencies in the area, has already said it will dip into greater Sacramento’s abundant groundwater stocks to alleviate pressure on the Folsom reservoir.
Jim Peifer, the authority’s executive director, said he remains confident the region will have enough water to meet human demands, but he said he’s worried that water shortages could degrade conditions on the Lower American River.
“The environment is going to be challenged this year,” he said.
The authority has already urged residents to voluntarily cut their water usage by 10%, and water managers say Reclamation’s announcement underscores the worsening conditions.
“It doesn’t matter how strong your water rights are ... if there’s no water in the lake,” said Tom Gray, general manager of the Fair Oaks Water District, which relies in part on the reservoir.
Still, he said Fair Oaks will have enough water to meet its demands, and said Reclamation’s announcement “is not unexpected, probably, at this point.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a drought emergency for 41 counties, including greater Sacramento and the Central Valley, as a warm spring caused what was already a skimpy Sierra Nevada snowpack to largely evaporate or dissipate into parched soils.
Reclamation also announced that most farm-irrigation districts that belong to the Central Valley Project will get no water at all this year, the first time that’s happened since 2015. Previously, the agency announced a 5% allocation, but said it was suspended for the time being.
Farm groups have been predicting major cutbacks in plantings this year, and Wednesday’s announcement reinforced their gloom.
“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,” said Tom Birmingham, manager of the vast Westlands Water District in Fresno and Kings counties. “The Central Valley Project was originally designed and constructed to supply water through even extended droughts.”
Although Westlands mainly serves farm irrigators, the district announced it was forbidding all outdoor landscape watering for now.
Unlike the previous drought, when former Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a 25% cut in urban water consumption, Newsom hasn’t issued any comparable mandates. But his water policy advisors say the governor could crack down on urban usage if the state endures a third consecutive dry winter. State officials say conditions have gotten at least as bad as they were in 2015, if not worse.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 3:10 PM.