Survey says: Westlands farmers to get more water in surprise release

• Editor’s note: Allison Hunter covers Fresno County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative.

Farmers in the Westlands Water District got a surprise addition to their annual water allocation after the Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday it would increase the allocation of Central Valley Project contractors from 28% to 31% of their contract total.

Westlands’ General Manager, Allison Febbo, said in a statement, “While allocation increases this late in the water year are unusual, the latest hydrologic data shows there is water available in our reservoirs that can be put to beneficial use now.” 

The increase of three percentage points of the district’s total contract (1,195,000 acre-feet) is 37,450 acre-feet, which is close to the amount growers told Westlands they would need to pump beyond what the Bureau had initially allocated to the west Fresno district.

In August, the Bureau had announced it would give Westlands just 28% of its contracted supplies.

Westlands Executive Director Allison Febbo tried, to no avail, to convince the Bureau to increase that allocation as both the San Luis and Shasta reservoirs were full.

So, Febbo surveyed Westlands farmers about how much groundwater they would need to pump in order to make up for the shorted surface supplies, she said at the district’s Oct. 19 meeting.

The answer: About 40,000 acre feet, Westlands Board President Jeff Fortune told SJV Water. 

This extra gulp from the Bureau will help keep that same amount in the aquifer, he said.

“I give her credit for thinking of that,” Fortune said of surveying farmers.