Water: Upbeat first assessment of year's supplies
Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
01/19/2011
The rainy season isn't over yet, but California farmers already have reasons to be optimistic about the 2011 harvest.
A torrent of early winter storms and higher-than-expected water left from 2010 prompted federal regulators Tuesday to issue an upbeat first assessment of the year's water supplies.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the sprawling network of pipes and pumps that bring water to Central Valley farmlands and some urban customers in the Bay Area, expects to deliver as much as 100 percent of the water supplies requested.
"The new year starts with an encouraging water supply forecast, thanks to the precipitation delivered by Mother Nature," David Hayes, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, said in a statement.
In December, California's first snow survey of the season showed almost double the normal snow water content for this time of year, compared with 85 percent of normal in the first report last year. That critical measurement indicates the amount of water contained in the state's snowpack, which provides almost two-thirds of California's water supply as springtime runoff.
Though the first water allocations won't be official until February - and this winter's La Niña pattern could still deliver a dry February and March - the state's multibillion-dollar agriculture industry is heartened by the early estimates. Between 2006 and 2009, especially dry weather and environmental restrictions on pumping through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta forced farmers to fallow fields and plow under water-hungry crops, said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
"It's been wet early, so that allows folks to start planting seasonal fruits and vegetables in the valley that they might not have in the past few years - tomatoes, melons, peppers and other commodities," said Wenger, a Modesto area almond and walnut grower.
