In California’s Sacramento Valley, farms and cities will receive 100 percent of their contracted federal water this year, but farmers farther west in the San Joaquin Valley will only see 5 percent of their promised water, reports the Los Angeles Times. That’s up from 0 percent last year, and a sign of increased rainfall this season. But the uptick leaves some in the San Joaquin Valley crying foul.
“At a time when water supplies have returned to normal and the major reservoirs are in flood control operations, the federal fishery agencies continue to hoard water,” Jason Peltier, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, said in a statement.
Angry San Joaquin farmers aren’t wrong to think that water allocation decisions go beyond simple measurements of rainfall. “The mix of allocations reflects the complicated rules for water deliveries, which depend not just on precipitation, but on reservoir storage, water rights and environmental protections,” says the Times.
Water levels in the Lake Shasta reservoir, which feeds the Sacramento Valley, are above average, but other reservoirs supplying the west side of the Valley are not as full. Federal officials say that water allocations to the San Joaquin Valley could increase later in the year if drought conditions continue to abate in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.