Water Round Up

We had a good week of rain and snow. It is too early to tell what ultimate impact this week’s precipitation will have on this summer’s irrigation water supplies, but it is definitely positive. It also reduced the water cost impact of an old Delta regulation that requires releases of water stored in the reservoirs to be sent to the ocean to maintain a particular water quality level at “Port Chicago,” which is located in the western Delta. This regulation was put in place back in 1999 to address conditions in the Delta at that time. Over the next five weeks, this restriction is estimated to cause 600,000 acre-feet of fresh water to be lost to the Pacific Ocean. This water quality requirement is still in place despite major ecological changes in the Delta since 1999, but the rain we have experienced this week will help to meet the requirement, allowing the reservoirs to reduce their releases. Our Valley Congressmen Costa, Valadao, Gray and Fong rang the bell with the Governor’s office on this issue a couple of weeks ago with a bi-partisan letter, which you can read here.

This week, the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley had a board meeting and received an update on the development of the Unified Valley Water Plan. This very important planning document is nearing completion. It consists of six chapters, with five already drafted and in circulation for review. They include an introductory chapter, then a chapter that outlines the water resource needs and opportunities in the Valley. Chapter three deals with the flood risks and management opportunities in the Valley, and the fourth chapter provides an illustration of an environmental vision for the Valley and the estimates of water supplies to implement that vision. The fifth chapter identifies the hundreds of different projects and actions that can be taken to address the water shortages in the Valley. Chapter six, which is being worked on now, will identify what portfolio of changes and projects can be advanced to close the gap. What is already clear is that the water supply gap to maintain the status quo of the Valley’s irrigated agriculture footprint is nearly 3 million acre-feet per year. Aggressive capture of water available in non-dry years by the local water agencies and GSAs could address potentially a third of that need, but the available uncaptured local supplies are currently concentrated mostly in the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley where the water supply shortfall is less than the southern San Joaquin Valley. To make significant improvement in the southern San Joaquin Valley water balance, more imported supplies are necessary.

There are two constraints to obtaining more imported water. First are the Delta regulations that throttle back water exports, particularly in the winter and spring, e.g.,  the “Port Chicago” regulation that the Congressmen pointed out. There are many of these types of restrictive regulations that have been put in place, particularly to protect endangered species, which cost a lot of water and have not been successful in materially improving the species they were put in place to protect. Reforming water costing regulations and replacing those with other targeted actions that actually address the health of the species is critical to improving our water supply. Fortunately, there is a huge effort underway to change the approach. It is called the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program. It is fully supported by almost all in the water community, many in the environmental community, and by the Governor and the state administration. More information about the program is available here.

The second major constraint is the loss of capacity in our major aqueducts, mostly caused by subsidence. The Friant Canal that takes water from above Fresno down the east side of the Valley to Kern County has suffered the most capacity loss. There was a major repair accomplished recently to restore much of its carrying capacity, but subsidence continues to threaten other portions of the canal. The California Aqueduct, the 444-mile canal that takes Delta water down the west side of the San Joaquin Valley all the way to Southern California, is suffering significant subsidence that, if not corrected, will reduce its delivery capability by as much as 45% over the next 15 years. The 117-mile Delta Mendota Canal serves the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, and it too has growing capacity restrictions due to subsidence. The cost to fix these problems is estimated to be several billion dollars.

Chapter six of the plan will lay out the roadmap for narrowing the water supply gap in the Valley. Realistically, given the size of the gap, some land retirement will inevitably be necessary. But let’s remember what is at stake. Thank you to the Harrison Company who did this research: In a 100-mile circle around Fresno, there is more milk produced than Wisconsin, there are more peaches grown than Georgia, there are more fresh oranges grown than Florida, and 30% of the nation’s vegetables and 60% of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown there. The San Joaquin Valley is a huge and valuable national asset. The Unified Valley Water Plan will be an important roadmap for how we protect and preserve it.

Geoff Vanden Heuvel

Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs