Sacramento-California and federal water regulators agreed on Feb. 26 to increase water allotments to Central Valley growers due to the plentiful winter precipitation. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be giving farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta 30 percent of the water they requested, up from 10 percent in 2009. Officials say that percentage could rise to 40 percent as water is purchased from other sources. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) raised its allotment to 15 percent of the water requested by water agencies representing some 25 million residents, up from the 5 percent originally proposed. The DWR announced on March 3 that the water content in California’s mountain snowpack is 107 percent of normal for that date. The federal and state announcements reportedly caused Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to temporarily table an amendment that would have eased Endangered Species Act restrictions to allow more water to be pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for growers in the Central Valley (GM March 1, p. 11). In a February letter to members of the Senate finance and environment and public works committees, California Farm Bureau Federation President Paul Wenger urged support for Feinstein’s Emergency Temporary Water Supply Amendment, which was originally slated to be attached to the jobs bill currently under Senate consideration. Wenger said the amendment would increase the amount of water that can be transferred to storage during periods of high river flows, while also protecting delta smelt and migrating salmon. Opponents claimed the Feinstein amendment could ultimately lead to the extinction of Sacramento River salmon and eliminate up to 23,000 jobs in the Pacific coast fishing industry.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain