Farmers fear no Friant-Kern water
After a miserable dry winter last year, strong storms on Monday and Tuesday that brought heavy rain were a welcome change to farmers across California.
These storms dropped an estimated six to 12 inches of much-needed snow on the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which prior to that had zero or trace amounts of snowpack, along with one to three inches in the lower foothills.
And here in the Valley, nearly two-thirds of an inch of rain was measured at the Visalia Municipal Airport, while Tulare had slightly less, .51 inches. Fresno had more rain, nearly an inch, according to WeatherAg, a Visalia-based forecasting service for the agricultural industry.
On top of that there is a slight chance for scattered showers in the Valley on Monday, while a stronger chance exists for a wetter storm hitting the region mid-month, said Scott Borgioli, a meteorologist and WeatherAg’s owner.
It's a promising start to the Valley’s rainy season, which usually begins around now, but it’s no guarantee that a wet winter will come, despite predictions from forecasters that a wetter-than-normal winter in likely for Central and Southern California.
Even if that wetter weather comes, Glen Martin is worried about getting water for his citrus groves in the Terra Bella and Success Valley areas of southeast Tulare County.
Like many farmers along eastern Tulare County, he depends on surface water delivered via the Friant-Kern Canal to irrigate his groves. But for the past two years, he and other farms depending on that water have gotten none allocated through the system due, in part, to low water levels in Fresno County’s Millerton Lake because of the state’s four-year drought.
In addition, a large portion of what little water the lake has been delivered to water rights holders — known as “exchange contractors” — in the Los Banos area who haven’t received water they’re contractually entitled to receive from the San Joaquin Delta. Water levels also have been low there because of requirements that some of that water be redirected for environmental reasons.
The zero water allocations in the Friant system was unprecedented since the Friant-Kern Canal began operating in the early 1950s, and farmers in Terra Bella and some nearby areas are being particularly hard hit because they don’t have wells while others, like Martin, have limited water in their wells.
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Things have gotten so bad that Martin has torn mature trees out of large sections of his groves and is focusing what little well water he has on keeping his younger trees alive.
As for his plans for the future, even if the winter is wet, he said of the trees he removed, “I don’t know if I’m going to replace them, because they tell us zero allocation [next year] even if it rains.”
“I don’t know that I’d call it a rumor” that no water will be allocated by the Friant Water Authority next year, said Dan Vink, general manager of the Lower Tule River and Pixley irrigation districts. “I think it’s early speculation of what next year looks like.”
Despite the predictions for a strong El Niño effect — a warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that tends to increase winter storm activity in Central and Southern California — expected to occur this winter, he said, “We really see things very conservative right now.”
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How water much is allotted to farmers and communities through the Friant system next year could depend on how much water the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation releases through the Delta, Vink said.
“There is concern that even in a normal year type [of rain and snow] they’ll be so conservative in the amount of water they store in northern California to protect the endangered species there, there is some discussion they are going to be very conservative in the amount of water they allocate next year” through the Delta, he explained.
And if that allocation is low enough, then large amounts of water from Millerton Lake could be directed to exchange contractors instead of contractors along the Friant-Kern Canal, which extends south from Fresno County across eastern Tulare County to Kern County.
As such, Vink said, “It’s not a rumor, but it is a concern they have.”
“It shows how out to sync things are that even in a wet year, they are sending up red flags that they might not send out normal allocations.”
“I haven’t heard rumors from my growers, but I’ve heard from other [irrigation district] manager and forecasters wondering what kind of water year it would take” to ensure that the exchange contractors get the water they’re entitled to from the Delta without having to tap into Millerton Lake, said Dale Brogan, manager of the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District, which gets water through the Friant-Kern Canal.
“I’ve seen all kinds of predictions about what kind of water year it would take. A lot depends on how much [rain and snow] comes and how it comes,” he said.
Heavy storms spread out over the season would be preferred to a few mild storms hitting quick and hard, causing flooding and a lot of rain being “flushed” out as flood release to the ocean rather than being stored and used here, Brogan said.
“Just based on two years of having no water, the fear is very present on everybody’s minds, but everybody is hopeful that El Niño will produce water for everybody’s interests,” he said.
“There’s a good chance the contractors will get all they need,” Brogan said.
“My opinion is, anybody making a bold prediction one way or another, they are probably not worth listening too. Nobody knows,” said Bill Luce, interim general manager of the Friant Water Authority, which oversees distribution of water through the Friant-Kern.
Still, when asked what the odds are for zero water allocations in 2016, he put them at just 20 percent.
“If we get a really significant amount of rain and a good snowpack... I don’t think there will be a problem getting a water supply. It will have to be a very big year,” which long-range weather forecasts give good odds of happening, Luce said.