Central Valley farmers will receive slightly more water than the federal government initially said, but Westlands Water District feels the update is inadequate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo said the Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s 5% increase in water supplies for the Valley is appreciated but falls short of what farmers need.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flashback: Reclamation announced in February that south-of-Delta water contractors would receive 15% of the contracted total after a dry and warm January decimated California\u2019s snowpack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federal government boosted the allocation to 20% in March after some late February storms provided a marginally better outlook for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The big picture: Reclamation announced Tuesday that south-of-Delta contractors will now receive 25% of their contracted totals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Driving the news: The agency said the increase is due to continued modest improvements in reservoir storage and spring runoff conditions across the state\u2019s water system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: \u201cCareful coordination and improved spring runoff conditions have strengthened overall system storage and allowed us to make additional water supplies available to south-of-Delta contractors,\u201d said Reclamation Acting Regional Director Adam Nickels. \u201cWhile the Sierra snowpack has for the most part dissipated earlier than usual due to a warm spring, current reservoir storage and operational conditions support this incremental increase while maintaining prudent management of the CVP system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reclamation noted in a press release that California faces hydrologic uncertainty due to the rapid decline of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, with snowpack conditions falling well below average this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Febbo said the weather whiplash between wet and dry conditions demonstrates the urgent need \u201cto fix an outdated and broken system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She called the allocation update \u201cdisappointing.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe CVP was designed to support water supply both north and south of the Delta through reservoir operations and, particularly for south of Delta agricultural allocations, through the diversion of excess flows in the winter and spring,\u201d Febbo said. \u201cInstead, lack of flexibility at our reservoirs combined with constraints on capturing surplus water during high-flow conditions has produced a system that is not fully delivering on its intended purpose.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Febbo added, \u201dWe need increased investment in storage and conveyance infrastructure, along with meaningful regulatory flexibility that prioritizes the needs of Californians, including our Central Valley communities. Without it, our water system will continue to fall short for the people and the purpose it was built to serve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Valley farmers will receive slightly more water than the federal government initially said, but Westlands Water District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-323482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}