Washington-California growers received good news on Jan. 18 when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reported that it expects to deliver more water supplies requested by Central Valley farms this season due to plentiful snows left by early winter storms and higher-than-expected water reserves left over from 2010. Although the first water allocations won’t be announced until February, the federal government on Jan. 18 released an initial forecast of 45 percent for farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, with the remaining agricultural, urban, and industrial customers expected to receive 75-100 percent of their requests. The agency reported that California’s first snow survey in December showed almost double the normal snow water content for that time of year, compared with 85 percent of the normal in the first report last year. Early last year, farmers south of the delta were forecast to receive only 5 percent of the water permitted through long-term contracts with the federal government, but that allotment was subsequently raised to 45 percent during the 2010 growing season due to heavy spring rains. In another water forecast last week, the U.S. National Weather Service on Jan. 18 predicted major flooding on the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota due to above-normal snowpack. The report said the risk of major spring floods in the northern Red River basin near the Manitoba border is similar to the risks that were present during major floods in 2006, 2009, and 2010.
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