Merced County farms looking at drastic water shortages with coming dry season
Local irrigation district officials and Merced County farmers are worried the current wet season isn’t wet enough to yield more than one acre-foot of surface water for many local farmers in the coming dry season.
During a Merced Irrigation District board meeting this week, officials discussed how to grapple with the expected water supply shortages this year due to the drought and water allocations from Lake McClure, which the MID board decides every year.
“As of now and unless the weather changes, the board will have some difficult decisions to make in the coming weeks,” said John Sweigard, the general manager of the Merced Irrigation District.
How Lake McClure water is allocated depends primarily on snow levels in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the amount of water stored in the lake when the dry season starts, according to a Merced Irrigation District news release.
Several variables could still affect water availability later in the year, so board members didn’t make any decision during the Feb. 15 meeting.
During the next meeting, scheduled for March 1, the board is expected to discuss new developments that could affect the water supply this year, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of any decisions about the district’s water supply. A precise irrigation season start date hasn’t yet been scheduled.
In past years, to deal with water supply shortages, the board made supplemental water available via a supply pool program, which is voluntary for Merced County growers.
More than 120,000 acre-feet of water is transferred from Lake McClure to the local groundwater basin, including recharge basins and unlined canals. These water supplies are used during dry years, irrigation district officials said.
Lake McClure is 28% full this year, which is half of its historic average for the month of February. Meteorologists don’t predict any more storms through the end of the month and temperatures in the Merced area are expected to hover in the 60s and 70s, according to the MID press release.