By the California Farm Bureau Federation:
Transferred water could begin moving as early as July 1 to water-short irrigation districts in the western San Joaquin Valley.
The Oakdale Irrigation District and South San Joaquin Irrigation District said last week they had agreed to transfer up to 100,000 acre-feet of water to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which serves Westside water districts.
The transfer awaits review by the State Water Resources Control Board.
OID and SSJID have pre-1914 water rights on the Stanislaus River, and would sell water stored in New Melones Reservoir.
The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority will pay $400 an acre-foot for the water. Agricultural water contractors among its 27 member agencies will receive no water this year from the federal Central Valley Project.
If the transfer earns approval, the water would be moved down the Stanislaus River and into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta before being pumped into a CVP canal for delivery.
The general managers of the OID and SSJID said their customers will still have full water allocations, despite the ongoing drought.
“With a secured water supply for our own customers and communities, and some contingency supplies if drought continues into next year, our board is also very concerned for the communities in the San Joaquin Valley who have endured over a year of COVID-19 and are now heading into the irrigation season with almost no water supply,” SSJID General Manager Peter Rietkerk said.
The districts said the proposed transfer would have additional benefits, allowing more cold water to be held behind Shasta and Oroville dams. That cold water could be released in the autumn to benefit spawning salmon.
A similar proposed transfer failed in April, the districts noted, due to “rapidly changing hydrology and delta operations.”
Now, they said, “the water supply picture on the Stanislaus River is much clearer,” and the state water board has approved delta drought operations.
