BLOG: Managing California’s water requires improved transparency

California is experiencing whiplash between boom-and-bust cycles of prolonged drought and atmospheric rivers. The unpredictable nature of our climate makes management of California’s water system extraordinarily challenging. But as the lifeblood for every Californian and a key ingredient for our agricultural communities, it is critical we have water management and distribution systems in place that work during both dry and wet years.

This year’s water allocations from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the Department of Water Resources were at the very least frustrating and demonstrate the need for improvements.

For background, Westlands Water District (District) receives water from the Central Valley Project and distributes that water to farmers and communities on the Westside of Fresno and Kings counties. Water allows farmers in Westlands to produce more than 50 crops annually and play a critical role in meeting California’s — and the nation’s — food supply and food security needs.

In February, the District received our first water supply allocation (the percentage of water the District is contractually entitled to) at 15 percent, which rose to 35 percent in March, 40 percent in April, no update was offered in May and in late June our allocation was finally updated to 50 percent.

Unfortunately, receiving meager allocations over the course of five months is a day late and a dollar short, and it dealt a devastating blow to our farmers and the communities we serve. Although growers are appreciative of the late June increase, by late June growers have already selected and planted their crops and made tough decisions on how to secure the water they need to ensure the success of their crops.

Westlands’ farmers have done their part, responding and adapting to increasingly complex and prohibitive regulations to ensure future generations can produce food on some of the most productive land in the country, investing in sustainability through costly infrastructure and ultra-efficient irrigation practices.

Last year, District farmers banked nearly 400,000 acre-feet of water to be stored for future dry years. The water returned to the aquifers was meant to be used as a savings account for use during future dry years, not a year like the current one that helped California escape drought conditions.

These low water supply allocations offered after a relatively wet winter, single-handedly demonstrate the critical and urgent need to improve water management transparency and accountability in California.

So, what’s the culprit? A myriad of complex and confusing operational mandates that leave room for interpretation and ultimately lead to judgment calls that lack transparency. This in turn leads to a lack of trust in our water management and distribution systems.

This year, concern over potentially low (but unmeasured) fish populations led regulators to impose tight restrictions. We understand we have a responsibility to protect our ecosystems, but we must strike a better balance that meets both environmental needs and the needs of our agricultural production, done through a science-based approach driven by data. Unfortunately, there is no data that demonstrates that lower allocations historically have improved the fish population.

We need a more collaborative and transparent approach to regulatory decisions that affect our water supply, and we urge the state and federal agencies responsible for making these decisions to rely more effectively on sound data and information.

We are committed to working with Reclamation and other interested state and federal agencies involved to rectify areas of concern that the District believes influenced this year’s water supply. Westlands remains vigilant in the effort to improve collaborative water supply decision-making and the transparency and accountability for those decisions.

Water supply from the Central Valley Project is the lifeblood of Westlands. Every drop of our water allocation given to District growers is food grown, jobs produced, and groundwater saved.

Continuing to manage California water in the same way we have been will only continue to yield the results we have. We can and must do better.

Allison Febbo is the general manager of the Westlands Water District and has nearly 25 years of experience in natural resources, hydrology and water operations.