Water in Merced County reservoirs essential to local farmers, advocates say

Merced County farmers pay close attention to local reservoir water levels, helping them plan for crop irrigation throughout the year.

“This water is the lifeblood of our agriculture community in the area.” said Gino Pedretti III, a member of the Merced County Farm Bureau board of directors.

And with Lake McClure at its maximum capacity for this time of year, farmers can plan a bit more liberally.

Farmers located within the Merced Irrigation District rely heavily on Lake McClure for irrigation Pedretti said. Even farmers who boarder the Merced Irrigation District boundaries benefit.

“Without that water the ag community would be decimated in the county,” Pedretti III said, adding that websites that track the inflow and outflow of water from the reservoir assist farmers in keeping track of water levels throughout the winter months. Monitoring this data gives area farmers a good idea of whether they can expect a full supply of water for that year, or if there may be some sort of curtailment.

“The water availability does affect the management practices of farmers in the area,” said Pedretti III.

With the area having seen excess water in the past couple years, farmers have been able to count on sufficient amounts of surface water to irrigate crops.

Pedretti III said, Merced County is a critically overdrafted water basin which requires farmers to curtail pumping of groundwater based on regulations established by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act or SGMA. Passed in 2014, SGMA was enacted as an an effort to protect the state’s groundwater by regulating pumping.

In past years of drought, some farmers who did not have access to well water, fallowed portions of their land when water released by MID was not enough to irrigate all of those farmer’s land. Farmers who had access to a well were able to pump groundwater needed for irrigation.

That has changed with the implementation of SGMA, Pedretti III said.

‘Without that surface water you could see 50 to 70% of the ground in the Merced basin fallowed.”

“The surface water for the Merced basin out of Lake McClure is the most vital lifeblood of resource that we have to keep the agriculture community going in this area,” Pedretti III said. “If we don’t have surface water it’s a complete game changer the whole Merced County economy.”

According to Hicham ElTal, deputy general manager for water resources and water supply with the Merced Irrigation District, every year the MID looks at the storage in the reservoir as well as forecasted runoff from snowmelt. The combination of that data can give MID an estimate of how much water they are able to provide to the growers.

“We in 2023 had a full supply, in 2024 we had a full supply,” ElTal said. “We are expecting also a full supply in 2025.”

Pedretti III said that farmers will typically make sure their permanent crops receive water first. They will then look at how much water is needed for annual crops and assess the profitability of those.

“Trees or vines, permanent crop — you want to make sure you have water for them because you have that usually higher investment for permanent crop compared to an annual crop and make sure those are taken care of. Then figure out the rest from there,” said Pedretti III.

Without access to the surface water, it could have an economic impact on the Merced County communities including the number of acres farmed and the the number of people employed, according to Pedretti III.