Water cap raised to 48 inches
BY ALEX CANTATORE
Update: This article initially transposed the words “allotment” and “cap.” The following is the corrected version of the text.
When it rains it pours, especially down irrigation canals. Thanks to a wetter than expected winter, Turlock Irrigation District customers can now look forward to a 48 inch total cap on irrigation water use, a half-foot improvement from the 42 inches available one year ago.
“Every week we’ve had a bit of an improvement in that forecast,” said Jeff Barton, AGM Civil Engineering & Water Operations.
At the initial grower meetings, a water cap of 36 inches was proposed. That number was boosted up to 42 inches in an April 8 report drafted for Tuesday’s TID Board of Directors meeting, thanks to a better than expected April 1 snowpack report from the Department of Water Resources.
By Tuesday, however, the final watershed report gave TID an opportunity to revise that number higher again, to a 48 inch cap irrigation season set to end Oct. 14, or one week later than the 2008 irrigation season. As the season began about one week later than last year, on March 20, the season will run for approximately the same amount of time.
According to Barton, the adopted 48 inch cap will leave just slightly less water in reservoir reserves for next year than the proposed 42 inch cap, as many farmers would have been entitled to 48 inches of water regardless due to the Pumping for Credit program. Participants in that program may not exceed a 48 inch cap, but may exchange water credits to eligible parcels as part of a separate board decision.
Per the resolution adopted by the TID Board of Directors Tuesday, all farmers will be entitled to a 33 inch allotment for $23 per acre. The first 12 inches of additional Tier 2 water can be purchased at $15 per acre-foot. A final 3 inches of water is available at Tier 3 pricing, or $20 per acre-foot.
Due to higher than expected precipitation this year, TID will rely less on groundwater pumping for irrigation needs. The approved plan calls for pulling 85,000 acre-feet of water from the aquifer this year, or 20,000 fewer acre-feet than in 2008.
“Because anticipated runoff has improved - and it’s improved significantly - we’ve suggested we pull back a little bit on the pumping,” Barton said.
This reduction in groundwater pumping is expected to better prepare the District for future dry years.
Should 2010 and 2011 be abnormally dry years, on the same level as 2008, the additional groundwater could become essential to growers. District projections estimate that, by the start of the 2012 season, reservoir storage could be drawn down to just 6.8 inches per acre from the 26.6 inches per acre of carryover projected for the end of this season.
“Without a crystal ball it’s hard to tell,” Barton said. “It could certainly be worse, but we’d be hit pretty hard in terms of carryover storage if we have a bad few years.”
Assuming normal rainfall for the season, however, TID expects to enter the 2010 irrigation season with more water in storage than in 2009.
“We’re by no means out of the woods yet,” Barton said. “We’ve had an improvement over last year, but we still want to encourage water conservation; we think it’s pretty important.”
As initially proposed by TID staff, the 2009 water cap would have promoted water conservation through offering an allotment of 30 inches, or 3 inches fewer than the adopted amount. Those additional 3 inches would then have been available for purchase at the Tier 3 water rate, hopefully discouraging farmers from using more water than they needed.
The 33 inch allotment adopted by the Directors was proposed by Phil Short, TID Division 4 Director, as a means of helping cash-strapped local growers.
The change will cost TID an estimated $100,000 in revenues this year. In dry years, ground water pumping can cost as much as $700,000, according to TID General Manager Larry Weis.
“We need to share the benefit with our farmers,” Short said.
TID clients can place water orders by calling the TID Call Center at 883-8456.
To contact Alex Cantatore, e-mail acantatore@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2005.
Originally published in the Turlock Journal 4/14/2009.
Retrieved from the Turlock Journal Web site.