Farmland photo by Melissa Sweeney

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provided updated water allocation for Central Valley Project (CVP) South of Delta agricultural water contractors on Tuesday, increasing allocation for this contract year from 40% to 50%.

This comes after previous allocations were projected to give farmers significantly lower allocations when growers were planning cropping decisions.

“This announcement provides much-needed relief and is good news for our growers,” said Allison Febbo, Westlands Water District General Manager. “Even so, the low water supply allocations announced earlier in this contract year, after a relatively wet winter that filled the reservoirs and lifted the state officially out of drought conditions, single-handedly demonstrate the critical and urgent need to improve water management transparency and accountability in the state of California.”

Westlands’ farmers have responded to lower allocations by adapting to increasingly complex and restrictive regulations, according to a press release from Westlands Water District.

Last year alone, Westlands banked more than 390,000 acre-feet of water and, as an acknowledgement of that success, the Bureau of Reclamation dedicated $25 million of the recent $81 million Inflation Reduction Act funding to expand Westlands’ groundwater recharge efforts.

Water returned to aquifers under these efforts will be used during future drought years.

Westlands said that they are committed to working with the Bureau of Reclamation to rectify issues raised that may further influence the year’s water supply including addressing the application of the Endangered Species Act.