Los Banos, CA (August 5, 2016) – The San Luis Reservoir has fallen to just 10% capacity, its lowest level in 25 years.
“These pictures speak volumes about the gross mismanagement of the Central Valley Project ,” said Byron- Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) General Manager Rick Gilmore. “We simply cannot continue to prioritize failing environmental policies over the survival of agriculture.”
Despite above-average rainfall this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced in April a 5% allocation for south-of-Delta Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors, a harsh blow for farmers in BBID’s CVP service area near Tracy. The CVP was started in the 1930s to transport water from reservoirs in Northern California to the Central Valley, largely for agricultural use. However, before this year’s 5% allocation, farmers in BBID’s CVP service area were hit with a zero-percent CVP supply for three straight years. While Shasta Lake sits three-quarters full, San Luis Reservoir, where water from Northern California is stored, is dwindling.
“The broken state of San Luis Reservoir reflects the broader reality that the CVP, as a water supply project, has been broken by the policy choices of the Federal government,” said Jason Peltier, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
“The unending practice of taking water from human use and giving it to fish in hopes of helping the fish is a failed enterprise,” Peltier added. “The fish are not responding at all. At the same time human, social and economic destruction continues to accelerate. Shameful.”