California’s Initial Water Allocation Estimate For 2014: Just 5%
November 21, 2013 The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Wednesday announced an initial allocation of 5% of requested deliveries to State Water Project (SWP) contractors in calendar year 2014.
The initial allocation is a conservative estimate of what DWR expects it can deliver as a percentage of the total amount requested by the public water agencies that contract for SWP deliveries.
“We hope things improve with this winter’s storms,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin, “but there is no guarantee that 2014 won’t be our third consecutive dry year. Today’s allocation is a stark reminder that California’s fickle weather demands that we make year-round conservation a way of life.”
It is still early in the water year; DWR will update the allocation as the winter progresses based on mountain snowpack accumulation. On average, half of California’s annual precipitation occurs in December through February, and three-quarters occurs from November through March.
Initial water delivery estimates are conservative because they are made before the wettest period of the year. Storage levels in the state’s major reservoirs largely dictate the initial SWP allocation.
The lowest previous initial SWP allocation, also five percent, was for calendar year 2010. Made on the heels of the 2007-2009 drought, the 2010 allocation was eventually increased to 50% of the slightly more than four million acre-feet of water requested by the 29 public agencies that receive SWP water. Winter storms increased the second-lowest initial allocation of 10% for calendar year 1993 to 100 percent of requested deliveries.
Source: California Department of Water Resources
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