San Joaquin Valley Growers Get Some H2O Relief

A welcome series of late-winter storms means that growers on the west side of California’s San Joaquin Valley, who depend on the federal Central Valley Project for water, got some relief Tuesday as they learned that they will get a 25% water allocation for 2010. While obviously far short of what they would like, the allocation is a huge improvement from the news of March 1, when growers were told they could depend on getting a minimum allocation of just 5% for the coming season.

The secretary of the Department of Interior, Ken Salazar, announced the increased water allocation to project users north and south of the Delta is due to additional precipitation and snowpack levels this year. Leaders of grower groups and water officials, including Western Growers president and CEO Tom Nassif, hailed Tuesday’s announcement.

“This is welcome news for growers, although we hope that amount can increase in the near future,” said Nassif in a press release. “Precipitation and significant snowpack levels warrant further increases in allocation levels and we are happy Secretary Ken Salazar is watching our situation closely and acknowledges our need for a certain and reliable water supply.”

Nassif said that in addition to the late-winter storms, the increased allocation was due to the work of many government and agricultural officials who lobbied for it. “We also know that without the attention and support from our elected representatives like Congressmen Jim Costa, Dennis Cardoza, Senator Dianne Feinstein and the members of the agriculture community, we may not be receiving these beneficial supplies in time to plan and secure financing for the next growing season,” he said.

The general manager of the Westlands Water District in Fresno, Thomas Birmingham, also expressed gratitude to Salazar and other members of the Obama Administration who have been working to bring relief to growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. “The availability of these additional supplies will enable many farmers to put some of their lands back into production, creating jobs and helping to restore the economic health of the San Joaquin Valley,” said Birmingham in a press release. “We hope the allocation will increase further in the months ahead, and we are encouraged by Secretary Salazar’s announcement that reclamation will accelerate its analysis of potential increases to the allocation.”

Birmingham also tipped his cap to Feinstein, who has taken some heat from fellow Democrats for lobbying for the increase in water supplies. “Senator Feinstein has taken a lot of unjustified criticism for trying to relieve a regulatory crisis that has thrown tens of thousands of her constituents out of work. Many of those attacks have come from the same special interests that have consistently opposed the efforts at the state level to repair our broken water system,” he said. “Had they bothered to talk with Senator Feinstein or consulted the numerous public water agencies that are involved before they launched their attacks, they might not have taken these positions.”

However, Birmingham said it’s important to note that the region’s growers will now and in the forseeable future be wrestling not just with droughts in terms of rainfall, but a so-called regulatory drought. “California’s water crisis is entering a new phase; it should now be apparent to everyone that regardless of how much water exists north of the Delta, restrictions on the movement of that water through the Delta to areas served by the Central Valley Project and California’s State Water Project will cause economic hardship for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Now it is time to look toward the “Delta Vision,” – a movement to repair the environment of the Delta and restore reliability to California’s water system, said Birmingham. “In his announcement today Secretary Salazar rightly emphasized the importance of moving beyond short-term fixes to this ongoing crisis and focusing instead on a long term plan. We could not agree more,” he said. “Westlands is committed to the vital, collaborative work of developing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Through that effort, we are working together with scientists, environmentalists, economists, engineers and fish and wildlife experts to build a better future for California.”