- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Dry year results in zero allocation for Yolo Flood; no irrigation water available from Clear Lake, Indian Valley Reservoir
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The year's dry conditions have resulted in a severe curtailment for some of those who rely on water from Clear Lake.
Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, based in Woodland, owns the water rights to Clear Lake, and also owns and operates Indian Valley Reservoir.
Based on Yolo Flood's water rights, it gets 150,000 acre feet of water if Clear Lake is at 7.56 feet Rumsey – the special measure for the lake – by May 1.
However, if Clear Lake is at 3.22 feet Rumsey or below, Yolo Flood gets no water.
This year, Clear Lake's level on May 1 was 2.32 feet Rumsey, according to Lake County Water Resources records.
As such, that meant a zero allocation for Yolo Flood, according to General Manager Tim O'Halloran.
Yolo Flood had received a 70-percent allocation in 2013, he said. That year, Clear Lake was at 6 feet Rumsey.
The last time Yolo Flood received a zero allocation was in 1991, O'Halloran said.
O'Halloran said that Yolo Flood is releasing a small amount of water through the Cache Creek Dam as it is required to do to maintain certain flow levels, but beyond that Yolo Flood's customers are having to find backup sources of water.
“They have three options, basically,” he said.
Those are to fallow land, use groundwater or plant crops that need less water, O'Halloran said.
As for the impact of the zero allocation, “It’s a big deal for us,” said O'Halloran.
He explained that 80 percent of the district's revenue comes from water sales.
Yolo Flood has a $4.5 million annual budget, and O'Halloran estimated that an average of about $3.5 million comes from selling water.
Many parts of Northern California are seeing large plantings of orchard crops, such as almonds, thanks to a robust market. However, due to the water involved, that's a concern for Yolo Flood.
“We're watching that closely,” said O'Halloran, who hasn't noticed that trend in his service area.
Like Clear Lake, irrigation water also isn’t being released from Indian Valley Reservoir this year, O'Halloran said.
Currently, Indian Valley Reservoir is at about 28,000 acre feet, a fraction of its 300,000-acre-foot capacity.
Yolo Flood stopped releasing water from the reservoir earlier this year, when the reservoir was at 15,000 acre feet. O'Halloran said rain in February and March raised it to the current level.
With the Spring Valley community using the reservoir for a water supply, it was decided not to let the level go any lower, O'Halloran said.
“It's not in anybody's interest to have them go dry,” he said.
Even if Yolo Flood did release that additional water from the rainy season, it's unlikely it would get to customers, but would be absorbed by the dry ground, he said, so it's best to hold onto it for next winter.
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