California ag organizations hopeful for WIIN

As of Friday, the Sierra Nevada had an average of 32.9 inches of snow. That’s 174 percent more than normal for this time of year.

California agriculture organizations are hopeful this season’s snowfall will help with the water supplies for Valley farmers and ranchers.

Their hope won’t come without reservation.

“You would think that a snowpack in the range of 175 percent of average would assure plentiful water supplies, but that link has long ago been severed,” said Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers Association. “Wildlife agencies often hold the key to determining how much water is available, because endangered-species laws reserve water for protected fish.”

Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, WIIN Act is a recently passed federal law which includes short-term and long-term provisions for the state water crisis.

“Among its provisions, the WIIN Act allows water agencies to capture more water during winter storms and requires them to maximize supplies consistent with law,” said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. “This winter will be a good test of how agencies adhere to that law.”

The short-term provisions oversee operations of the federal and state water projects under the Endangered Species Act for up to five years, regardless of drought conditions.

Long term provisions assure the state’s water demands are met by investing in water storage, flood control, desalination and water recycling.

“We’ve had to let too much water run out to sea this winter, because we didn’t have any place to store it,” said Bill Diedrich, president of the California Farm Water Coalition. “We should be doing everything we can to save today’s rain and snow for use tomorrow.”

A total of 7.9 million acres of farmland is irrigated by flood, sprinkler, drip and subsurface irrigation, California Farm Water Coalition reported.

Farmers pay for all the water they use to irrigate their crops. On average irrigation districts charge $25 per acre-foot.

In recent years, the majority of the water has been well-water pumped to the surface. Water from this season’s snowfall will melt into reservoirs including lakes Success and Lake, which irrigation districts in Tulare County will allocate it to the farmers.

Farmers are looking forward to full ditches this year which in return will help replenish the aquifers underground.

The WIIN Act will parallel the investments of the Proposition 1 water bond in 2014 which authorized just over $7 billion in general obligation bonds for water projects including surface and groundwater storage, ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration and drinking water protection.

Projects to be funded through the bond will be discussed at California Water Commission meetings later this year.

“We will continue to urge the commission to put that money to work as quickly as possible,” Diedrich said, “to build new storage facilities that can capture more water during future winters such as we’ve seen in 2017.”