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Effective March 16, 2022

With temperatures increasing and the likelihood of rain all but over for this water year, farmers across Westlands are doing their best to grow food for summer and fall harvest amid yet another year of drought. To understand how drought conditions in across California affect farmers in the Central Valley, lets take a look at where Westlands’ water comes from.

Westlands’ primary source of water is the Central Valley Project (CVP). Water for the CVP starts as rain and snow in the Cascades, Trinity Alps, and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges. The precipitation that falls on the mountains makes its way to a CVP reservoirs such as Shasta Lake. Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in the CVP, can store approximately 4.55 million acre-feet (1.5 trillion gallons) of water. Water is released from CVP reservoirs when needed for the environment, communities, business, and agriculture.

Water that ultimately makes its way to the south Delta is lifted into the Delta-Mendota Canal at the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant, and is either stored, again, in the San Luis Reservoir, the largest off-stream reservoir in the country, or sent to communities or farms on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley, in Silicon Valley, and in San Benito County.

The San Luis Unit, which spans approximately 102 miles from the San Luis Reservoir to Kettleman City, serves Westlands and others. A key portion of the San Luis Unit is the San Luis Canal which conveys more than 1 trillion gallons of water in an average year and conveys water for homes, businesses, wildlife refuges, and hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland.

Once water flows into Westlands service area through the San Luis Canal, a slot on the side of the canal opens and siphons off a precise, measured amount of water into Westlands’ underground, fully enclosed pipelines. Westlands’ unique system protects water from evaporation and seepage while distributing water to farms and communities. This system ensures that water is not wasted. Farmers receive metered water through the underground pipe and use this water to strategically irrigate land and grow approximately 60 different high-quality, nutritious crops for the fresh, dry, canned, and frozen foods.

In February, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Westlands and other South-of-Delta agricultural repayment and water service contractors would receive only a 5% allocation; since then, due to worsening drought conditions, Reclamation announced that it will not provide Westlands or other agricultural repayment and water service contractors with any water. That means the only water available to farmers in Westlands is CVP water rescheduled from a prior year, water purchased on the transfer market, and groundwater.

Want to learn more about how water gets to Westlands? You can “Follow the Water Drop” in our new fact sheet. Learn more about how water is allocated to Westlands by checking out our Let’s Talk About the Central Valley Project Allocation video, featuring Westlands Water Resources Engineer Tom Boardman or the Let’s Talk About District Water Supply video featuring Chief Operating Officer Jose Gutierrez.

Crop Acreage Report

Exemption from the Ownership and Full-Cost Pricing Provisions of Federal Reclamation Law

This notice to landowners is regarding the application of Section 213 of the Reclamation Reform Act to lands in Westlands Water District.

Pursuant to section 4011 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (130 Stat. 1878), Westlands Water District, Westlands Water District Distribution District No. 1, and Westlands Water District Distribution District No. 2 (collectively “Districts”) entered into contracts with the United States to convert the Districts’ water service contracts executed under section (e) of the Act of August 4, 1939 (53 Stat. 1196), to repayment contracts under section 9(d) of that Act (53 Stat. 1195).  Pursuant to these repayment contracts, the Districts have paid to the United States the amounts specified in the repayment contracts required to discharge their obligations for repayment of the construction costs for the Central Valley Project.  Section 4011(c)(1) of the WIIN Act provides:

Upon a contractor’s compliance with and discharge of the obligation of repayment of the construction costs pursuant to a contract entered into pursuant to subsection (a)(2)(A), subsections (a) and (b) of section 213 of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (96 Stat. 1269) shall apply to affected lands.

In turn, section 213 of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982, provides the ownership and full cost pricing limitations of Federal reclamation law shall not apply to lands in a district after the discharge of that district’s obligation for the repayment of the construction costs of the project facilities used to make project water available for delivery to such lands has been discharged. 

As a result of the application of section 4011(c)(1) of the WIIN Act and section 213 of the Reclamation Reform Act to lands within the Districts’ service areas, the ownership and full cost pricing limitations of Federal reclamation law do not apply to those lands.  In addition, it will no longer be necessary to annually file with the Districts RRA reporting forms.

On December 9, 2020, Westlands received from the Bureau of Reclamation a letter confirming that lands within the District’s service area are no longer subject to the ownership and full cost pricing limitations of Federal reclamation law.  A copy of the letter can be viewed on the District’s website.  

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact the Westlands Water District’s general counsel, Jon Rubin, at jrubin@wwd.ca.gov.