The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced on January 31 that is reducing the already-drastically-low State Water Project allocation from 5% to zero—and deliveries to senior water right holders in the Sacramento Valley have been reduced to 50%, which the largest reduction permitted under their contracts.
The unprecedented announcement, which was a direct response to Governor Brown’s drought declaration that directed DWR and the State Water Resources Control Board to make any modifications needed to balance competing demands for the state’s water resources, followed a snow survey that found “far too little water in the still scant snowpack.” The snowpack was at 12% of average for this time of year. In addition, the major SWP and Central Valley Project reservoir are low, with capacity ranging from 39% to 55% of average for this time of year.
The SWP allocation is announced earlier and revised as conditions warrant to allow the SWP contractors sufficient time and information to plan.
“It is our duty to give State Water Project customers a realistic understanding of how much water they will receive from the Project,” said Director Cowin. “Simply put, there’s not enough water in the system right now for customers to expect any water this season from the project.”
With the 0% allocation, only 2013 carryover water will be delivered to SWP contractors. Currently there is 463,277 AF of carryover water belonging to 25 of the 29 water contractors.
In response to the announcement, Metropolitan Water of District of Southern California (MWD) General Manager Jeff Kightlinger emphasized that MWD is already planning to draw on reserves this year and renewed his call for the public to voluntarily conserve 20%.
“Metropolitan continues with a plan to draw on water reserves to meet demand this year. Reducing demands, however, is something that each and every Southern Californian can and should do at this time,” said Kightlinger.
In contrast, State Water Contractors General Manager Terry Erlewine responded with a call to improve storage infrastructure (which they argue will be accomplished by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan).
“The last time storms came through was more than a year ago, and we had to let that water go,” added Erlewine. “It’s more important now than ever to build a modern water system so that we don’t continually miss out on opportunities to capture extra water.”
While agricultural users had a zero percent allocation in 1991, this year marks the first time that a zero percent allocation was announced for all 29 SWP contractors.
To keep the situation from going from bad to worse, DWR and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to modify the Delta outflow requirements in order to preserve storage and prevent reservoirs from drafting to dead pool.
While a zero percent SWP allocation may be the harbinger of a dire situation, Rodney T. Smith, Ph.D., President of Stratecon Inc. and Editor of the Journal of Water, predicted on the Hydrowonk Blog last week that the Final SWP allocation would be 12%.
Written by Marta Weismann