This article was contributed by Jennifer Cosio Arellano, Water Conservation Program Manager with the Water Resources Association of San Benito County. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has announced its initial surface water supply allocations for the Central Valley Project (CVP) for the 2025 water year. CVP contractors’ south-of-Delta have been allocated 35 percent of their agricultural contract total and 75 percent of their municipal and industrial (M&I) total. Even with California’s inconsistent winter weather, which resulted in a very wet November and an extremely dry January, Reclamation has allocated more than double of last year’s initial allocation.
The San Benito County Water District (District) is one of many federal water contractors in California that imports surface water from the CVP, which is one of the largest water storage and conveyance systems in the world. With these allocations the District would be provided with over 19,000 acre-feet of water. This is enough to meet all agricultural and municipal demands in 2025 and store surplus supplies in San Justo Reservoir for later use.
Although Reclamation’s initial allocation for agriculture was only 35 percent, the District is able to provide its agricultural customers 55 percent of their annual requests. This is possible due to its thoughtful water management strategy of storing water in San Justo and San Luis Reservoirs from previous years, thus ensuring local farmers receive sufficient water for their irrigation use.
Reclamation’s initial allocation for the M&I sector is 75 percent, which equates to over 6,000 acre-feet for homes and businesses for their daily use. Because the District was able to store last year’s water in our local facilities, such as San Justo, it will be able to deliver a full allocation to the M&I sector and store additional supplies for future years. Our local surface water treatment plants, Lessalt and West Hills, will blend the imported water with our local groundwater to produce and deliver high quality drinking water to our county’s residents. This drinking water is delivered to Sunnyslope County Water District and the City of Hollister. Once delivered to these agencies, the water can be distributed to homes and businesses.
Future forecasts predict more rainfall in March, which will hopefully lead to an increase in Reclamation’s water allocations. The allocations are based on an estimate of water available for delivery to CVP water users and reflect current reservoir storage, precipitation, and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.
The District has authority by state statute for management of water resources within San Benito County and is the Groundwater Sustainability Agency for the county. The District is governed by an elected five-member Board of Directors and administered by the General Manager.
For more information, please visit www.sbcwd.com or call 831-637-8218
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