Valley water allotment ‘disappointing,’ Farm Bureau says endangered species part of issue

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KGPE) – More water is trickling down from the north for Valley farmers, but officials say the increase is “disappointing.”

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Reclamation increased federal contractors’ south of Delta water supply from 50% to 55%. All north-of-Delta Central Valley Project contractors are currently at 100% of their supplies.

While any increase is helpful, the Fresno County Farm Bureau’s CEO, Ryan Jacobsen, says the bureau was hopeful they would receive closer to a 60% or 70% allocation this year.

“While this is good news that it went up, it’s also disappointing news in the fact that Northern California, where this water originates, is actually above average this year,” he said. “We were hoping to see a much better allocation simply because of what the conditions should have allowed.”

So why aren’t they seeing a larger allocation if most of the state’s reservoirs are above average? Jacobsen says it’s because of federal red tape.

“The reason we’re not seeing the allocation that we would hope to see is simply because of the inability to get that water through the delta,” he said. “We have the endangered species issues as well as other issues that just make it very complex for us to get the water that we would hope to get in years like this year.”

Another disappointment— most of the water is set at this point.

Jacobsen says that due to the size of the allocation, “farmers will use their current allocation to grow this year’s crops and then just hope for the best going into next year.”

Jacobsen adds that without enough water coming from the north, farmers are forced to live year to year, unable to make future investments.

“The inability to get that water from Northern California down to here makes it so that you’re living year to year. How do you make investments for 10, 15, 20 years without having that reliable water supply? Farmers can only do what they currently have in place, and it’s really difficult to make those long-term plans that they would probably like to make.”