Water allocation increased to 30 percent of normal

Some Westside Kings County farmers found reason to celebrate Thursday when they heard about a meager increase in their water allocation. And the glass wasn't even half full.

The massive State Water Project will be giving its agricultural contractors 30 percent of their allocation.

That's up from a 20 percent announcement in March.

But it's too late to change the situation on the Westside, where huge blocks of plowed ground remain brown and unplanted, waiting to become dust in the wind.

For Steve Jackson, who has fruit and almond trees along Interstate 5 in southwestern Kings County, the announcement means that he'll be able to save more of his trees from dying.

It'll give him about another month's worth of irrigation water.

But he said he's still going to let some of the less productive fruit trees go.

"It's crazy to think that we're so excited about getting 30 percent. The long-term fix ... when that will happen, we don't know," he said.

State Water Project farmers made their planting decisions long ago based on the first announcement of a 15 percent allocation. Many decided to let a majority of their land lie fallow rather than plant a crop only to see it die later for lack of water deliveries from the troubled Sacramento River estuary, where massive pumps suck out water and send it south to hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and millions of urban residents.

Drought and endangered species restrictions have cut those pumps to a fraction of their capacity, which in turn has made for a lot of angry farmers and high unemployment in Westside communities dependent on farm workers.

In Stratford, Avenal and Kettleman City, the unemployment rate for February was 36 percent, 28 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Four Kings County agencies -- Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, Empire-West Side Irrigation District, Dudley Ridge Water District and the county itself -- receive state water from the Sacramento River Delta.

Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, the counties largest state water recipient, will get an additional 120,000 acre feet of water to ease pressure on several big growers, including farming giant J.G. Boswell Co.

"It means it's that much more water we're not going to have to pump from the ground this year," said Brent Graham, a water consultant and former general manager of the district.

Graham said he was assured by state officials that the 30 percent allocation isn't going to be reduced later.

He predicted that Westlands Water District, which gets water from the federal Central Valley Project, would also see an increase in its allocation.

An announcement is expected today from the Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Central Valley Project.

Westlands growers were told in February to expect zero water deliveries from the Delta.

Meanwhile, for Kings River water users, the snowpack runoff prediction has slipped from 81 percent of normal to 77 percent of normal, said Don Mills, general manager of the Kings County Water District.

The Kings River waters the district, which takes in the northeastern part of the county and areas around Hanford.

"Kings County is going to be pretty short," Mills said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(April 17, 2009)