BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Central Valley and Kern County will see significant changes with the new State Water Project operating plans.
- The State Water Project has been operating since the 1960s.
- It provides water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland.
- New operating plans for 2024 aim to better manage water resources.
- The Central Valley and Kern County are expected to be significantly impacted by these changes.
- Allocations and distribution plans are being updated.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The latest State Water Plan has been approved. One farmer talks about how this project will impact our agricultural industries.
The State Water Project is a multi-purpose water storage and delivery system that has been in place since the 1960s. Millions of residents throughout the state and agribusinesses depend on it. The Kern County Water Agency says this equates to one in twelve people in the United States who receive water from the State Water Project.
For example, the Kern County Water Agency gets 25% of its water from the State Water Project. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California gets about 50%, and the remaining 25% goes to 27 other contractors.
“The water project, we have this set of operating plans, and that is what has changed here. Our previous operating plans didn’t have the same level of flexibility that we have with these new plans.” John Yarbrough said.
John Yarbrough is the Deputy Director of the State Water Project, with the California Department of Water Resources and he says, this new plan is meant to provide more water to the Central Valley for a number of purposes, including protecting endangered species.
But so far, Kern County may only get 15% of its allotted water from the State Water Project, which is far less than what they received last year. These numbers could change later this year.
“We don’t typically receive all 100% of our allocation anymore. It seems to be really what they call ‘peaky.’ Some years are fantastic, and we get close to 100%, but other years are not. We’ve had several 5% years recently.” Tom McCarthy said.
Tom McCarthy is the General Manager for the Kern County Water Agency, and he says, the allocation can vary each year, and that's what you receive for that year.
Jay Kroeker, is one of these contractors and works for Starhh Family Farms. He says that as of now, they won’t receive 85% of their contract allocation.
“Yeah, at 15%, it’s not sufficient to irrigate all of the land. In the spring of 2021, we had to dry up 3,500 acres of almonds because it was two 5% years back-to-back.” Jay Kroeker said.
The California Department of Water Resources says the snow survey could change this.
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