A message from General Manager Allison Febbo:
Dear Growers,
This message is to update you on the District’s continued efforts to advocate to the Bureau of Reclamation for an additional 2026 Central Valley Project water allocation, and to share how the District intends to address what this year revealed about the allocation process. Reclamation has informed us that it will not increase the 2026 south-of-Delta allocation to irrigation water service and repayment contractors. I recognize that this is not the news many of you were hoping for as you finalize this year’s operations and begin planning for next season, and you deserve a clear account of how we arrived here and where we go from here.
Throughout 2026, Westlands advocated consistently and persistently for allocations that reflected the water actually in the system. Beginning with Reclamation’s initial allocation announcement and continuing through every subsequent update, District staff and leadership met regularly with Reclamation to review demand forecasts, accounting under the Coordinated Operations Agreement, and the operational flexibility required to move water to our service area when it became available. Those discussions were substantive and, at times, difficult. Reclamation was initially reluctant to revise its outlook. Over the course of the year, and as a result of the District’s sustained engagement, Reclamation began to recognize the shortcomings in its projections, and the August allocation increase reflected a correction. It was, in our view, a smaller correction than conditions warranted, and it should not have required months of effort to secure an adjustment that the hydrology plainly supported.
The underlying problem is that Reclamation’s allocation projections did not keep pace with conditions. At each stage of the year, more water was in the system than Reclamation’s models projected, and the gap between projected and actual supply persisted through the season. The clearest evidence is San Luis Reservoir, which today holds approximately 168 percent of its historical average for this date and above forecast projections. Water that could have been allocated and delivered to Westlands during the irrigation season instead remained in storage.
In September, the District made a further formal request to Reclamation to increase the 2026 south-of-Delta allocation. Our request emphasized that current storage conditions support an additional allocation, including the significant supplies available in San Luis Reservoir, and that the District’s growers were prepared to put that water to beneficial use. Reclamation acknowledged that the water is available in San Luis Reservoir, confirming the position the District has maintained throughout the year. However, following detailed discussions with Reclamation’s operations staff, it is clear that operational constraints now limit Reclamation’s ability to move additional water into and out of San Luis Reservoir.
I want to be candid with you. I am disappointed in how this year unfolded. An allocation process that cannot respond to real-time supply conditions, and that leaves a reservoir at risk of spilling this winter while growers in our District draw on groundwater, is not serving its purpose. Earlier and more accurate decisions by Reclamation would have meant more surface water on farms and less pressure on the aquifer. This outcome is a failure of process, not of supply, and it must be corrected.
That work is already underway. Last week, Westlands and other south-of-Delta districts met with staff from Reclamation’s California-Great Basin Region and the Department of the Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science to lay out our concerns in detail, including how Reclamation’s projections and decision points fell short this year and how demand and storage information is incorporated into allocation updates. We plan to continue meeting with Reclamation in the coming months to develop solutions that ensure this does not occur again, and we are approaching that work in good faith. For its part, Reclamation has acknowledged the impacts of this year’s decisions and has committed to work with Westlands to improve the allocation process for 2027, to meet its contractual obligations to the District, and to carry out Executive Order 14181, which directs Reclamation to maximize California’s water supply. Reclamation has also committed to coordinate closely with the District in late 2026 and early 2027 to avoid the potential for a spill at San Luis Reservoir. We expect Reclamation to honor those commitments, and we will hold it to them.
At the same time, I want to put this year in its broader context, because the longer-term picture is more encouraging than a single season’s allocation suggests. This
Administration has made significant investments in critical water infrastructure.
Reclamation made an additional $78 million available at the end of the fiscal year to bolster efforts at Shasta Reservoir, on top of $40 million directed to Shasta through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Reclamation’s leadership has continued to advance Initiative 6 on a constructive path. And on September 5, Reclamation formally submitted comments to the State Water Resources Control Board objecting to the State’s August 2026 draft update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, stating that the draft threatens the reliability of Central Valley Project water supplies, departs from the framework negotiated in 2022, and cannot be supported in its current form. Each of these developments bears directly on the reliability of our water supply in the years ahead, and the District is engaged on all of them.
The District’s goal has not changed. When water is available, Westlands growers
should be able to put it to beneficial use. We will continue to press Reclamation for an allocation process that responds to actual conditions, and we will keep you informed as the 2026 review progresses and as the outlook for 2027 takes shape. Thank you for your continued trust in the District, and for your patience through a difficult year.
Allison Febbo
General Manager, Westlands Water District
No. 819