Merced Mysteries & Minutia: Despite drought, MID provided limited irrigation water this summer

In these years of drought, few things get people’s blood flowing more than talk about water.

Here in the Central Valley, when we think of water, we think of farmers. It’s no secret that farmers received very little irrigation water this year. In some places, they received none.

This week’s question is about irrigation water. I liked this question because I felt it provided a chance to revisit some old news. It also creates the perfect opportunity to clear up any possible misconceptions about this year’s water allocations. So, let’s get to it.

Q: How, in this year of drought and no allocation of stored water from the Merced Irrigation District, have canals been full all summer?

A: To clarify, it’s not exactly true that there were no allocations from Lake McClure this year.

MID officials initially warned growers there would be no surface water available for irrigation from Lake McClure. That’s because in March, the reservoir’s water level was at 8 percent. The district can’t divert water for irrigation after the reservoir falls below 11.5 percent. Lake McClure holds 1 million acre-feet of water at capacity.

By June, some rain fell and snow melted, bringing McClure’s water level up a bit.

At the end of June, MID’s board voted to allocate about 10,000 acre-feet of water to farmers. The allocation brought McClure right down to the 11.5 percent, or 115,000 acre-feet. The price on deliveries of that water was set at $100 per acre-foot. The irrigation run lasted about three weeks.

Dave Long, board president, said at the time that the purpose of allocating the reservoir water was to relieve pumping and prevent wells from collapsing.

In a typical year before the drought, MID diverted up to 500,000 acre-feet to its growers. So the 10,000 acre-feet MID allocated this year was a dismal amount compared with what farmers are used to. But that amount of water was literally the most MID could allocate from McClure.

That water alone is not what kept canals flowing through the summer.

MID also routinely replenishes 140,000 acre-feet of groundwater each year using water from Lake McClure. That water is pumped by cities and private landowners. MID can also pump that water for farmers in dry years.

This year, MID supplied about 14,000 acre-feet of groundwater for irrigation through its Supplemental Water Supply Pool Program. Typically, MID pumps about 5,000 acre-feet of this water.

Mike Jensen, MID spokesman, answered the question about canals simply: “Water was visible in creeks and canals because MID put it there to move it to farmers.”

It’s always interesting hearing what makes Merced County residents curious and learning new and unexpected things along the way to finding answers to your questions. Tell me, what do you want to know?

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Merced Mysteries & Minutia: Despite drought, MID provided limited irrigation water this summer."