Westlands Farmers Get Surprise Water Boost After District Manager Surveys Groundwater Need — Photo: Kwameghana(Bright Kwame Ayisi) — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Westlands Farmers Get Surprise Water Boost After District Manager Surveys Groundwater Need
Farmers in west Fresno County’s Westlands Water District will receive an unexpected addition to their annual water allocation after the Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday it would increase Central Valley Project allocations from 28% to 31% of contract totals.
The three percentage-point increase translates to 37,450 acre-feet for Westlands — nearly matching the 40,000 acre-feet that district farmers told management they would need to pump from groundwater to make up for what they viewed as shorted surface supplies.
“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,” Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo said in a statement.
The Bureau had announced in August it would give Westlands just 28% of its 1,195,000 acre-foot contract, even as both San Luis and Shasta reservoirs sat full. Febbo’s attempts to convince the Bureau to increase that allocation initially went nowhere.
So Febbo took a different approach: she surveyed Westlands farmers at the district’s Oct. 19 meeting about how much groundwater they would need to pump to compensate for the gap. The answer came back around 40,000 acre-feet.
“I give her credit for thinking of that,” Westlands Board President Jeff Fortune told SJV Water. The extra water from the Bureau will keep that same amount in the aquifer instead, he said.
The Breakdown
- The Bureau of Reclamation controls Central Valley Project water allocations to agricultural districts including Westlands, which serves west Fresno County farms
- In August, the Bureau set Westlands’ allocation at 28% of the district’s 1,195,000 acre-foot contract total
- Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo surveyed farmers to document how much groundwater they would pump to make up the shortfall — roughly 40,000 acre-feet
- The Bureau announced Tuesday it would increase allocations to 31%, giving Westlands an additional 37,450 acre-feet of surface water
- The increase keeps the equivalent amount of groundwater in the aquifer rather than being pumped out
What This Means for You
Federal water allocation decisions directly control how much Fresno County farmers rely on pumping groundwater versus using surface water from reservoirs. When surface allocations fall short, farmers pump more from the aquifer, which affects long-term groundwater levels across the valley. This year’s late increase means 40,000 acre-feet stays underground instead of being extracted.
What to Watch
This decision raises two questions the material leaves unanswered. First, why did it take a district manager’s survey of farmer pumping plans to prompt the Bureau to release water that was sitting in full reservoirs? If the “hydrologic data” Febbo cited showed water was available in October, what changed between August’s 28% allocation and this week’s increase — was it the data itself, or the documentation of how much groundwater would be pumped otherwise?
Second, whose priorities actually drive these allocation decisions when competing demands are in play? The timing — a late-year bump after initial resistance — suggests the Bureau weighs multiple factors beyond reservoir levels alone, but the material doesn’t identify what those factors are or who else wanted that water held back. Contract records and the Bureau’s internal allocation process would show what other Central Valley Project users were in the mix and how the Bureau balanced their claims against Westlands’ request.
