Last summer federal and state water agencies turned to Sacramento Valley senior water rights holders once again to sell Sacramento River water to desert agriculture with junior water rights. The California Dept. of Water Resources approved over 87,000 acre/feet of water sales by Butte County Water Districts to the State Water Contractors. The DWR approval allowed the Richvale Irrigation District to send over 21,000 acre/feet south and allowed Western Canal , Lance Tennis’s water district, to sell 35,442 acre/feet. Much of the water went to irrigate permanent crops that should never have been planted in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. Glenn Colusa Irrigation District planned to sell over 16,000 acre/feet of their entitlement water. These water sellers made $500 or more per acre-foot on the deals. This distorted water market fuels the very behavior that has caused the collapse of the San Joaquin River and its groundwater basins that have been over-pumped for decades. AquAlliance will continue to challenge these water transfers as we seek to prevent a similar catastrophe in the Sacramento Valley.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:08:32 +0000
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