Planners who operate California’s Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP), a network of water reservoirs and lines serving one of the richest agricultural farming areas in the world, are gearing up to deal with a record-breaking drought.
Unless more rain comes this winter the low levels of reservoirs around the state will continue to be a primary concern.
“After a dry 2020 water year, a critically dry 2021, and beginning the 2022 water year with one of the lowest carryover storage amounts in recent years, the (Bureau of) Reclamation remains all hands on deck and fully committed to planning for another dry year,” Ernest Conant, BOR director of the Mid-Pacific Region said on the BOR website. “We will continue to collaborate with our water users, stakeholders, and agency partners to develop and implement proactive measures and creative solutions to get through the coming water year together and best manage our critical water resources.”
Californians get their drinking and farming irrigation water from a number of reservoirs in the north part of the state including Shasta, New Melones, Trinity, San Luis and Folsom. According to the BOR, Shasta has a water storage capacity of 4.55 million acre feet. The current reservoir level is 1.08 million acre feet.
The CVP is the largest source of irrigation water in the state and supplies water to 3 million acres of farmland in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. The network is also a major supplier of water to the San Francisco Bay Area.
In addition, the water provides electrical power for power generation plants, but this year it is roughly half the normal rate at 2.9 billion kilowatt hours.
In response to the drought the CVP and SWP drew up a “Drought Contingency Plan” to track operations, water levels, long-term assessment and monitor the health of animal species dependent on water.
The report described the current situation as “critical.”
The water year in the report is determined beginning Oct. 1 through September 30 each year.
The BOR report said for 2022, California has 3.21 million acre feet of storage, or about 52% of normal.
