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The EPA sequestered (gets first dibs) 10,400 cubic feet per second for environmental reasons. That is shown in the lower bubble-gum-pink, horizontal line.
The jagged, blue line is the actual discharge of the Sacramento River at Freeport (just downstream of Sacramento where the tides peter-out) for the last 12 months.
Agriculture, industry and urban needs come out of what is left. In a typical year that is about 68% of what the EPA demands or roughly 12,000 cubic feet per second during the growing season. At the time of this writing, there will be ZERO water available for agriculture out of the Sacramento River for the 2022 growing season.
This works out OK in an average year. There is enough capacity in the reservoir system to make it all work out.
Given California's Mediterranean Climate with wet winters and dry summers, and highly variable rainfall in atypical years, something is going to break during stretches with less-than-average rains.
Somebody had an idea
The idea is stone-cold simple: Don't drain the fields during the winter. Let is soak in so the grape vines and almond and walnut trees can "mine" that water during the growing season.
What they do not mine can recharge the over-taxed ground-water aquifiers.
Visually, that means that those peaks that stick up above the pink line can be retained IN THE FIELD where the rain fell and not spilled out to the San Fran bay.
It does not work for every crop. Some rootstocks are freakishly sensitive to wet soils.
But it works for many crops. The soil temperatures are cooler and that slows the reproduction of many disease organisms. The cooler temperatures also reduce the roots' demand for oxygen.
Most grape rootstock used in California has a goodly dose of Vitis riparia (i.e. Riverbank Grape) in its pedigree and are fairly resistant to inundation. Heck, rivers flood all the time.
Many plum/peach/almond rootstock are also fairly resistant.
Walnut rootstocks are more susceptible in general but of the common rootstocks clonal Paradox RX1 has proven most resistant to flooding issues.
Farmers will have to figure out when to open the gates to drain the fields. There are many operations that must be done early in the growing season, especially with the plums/peaches/almonds, to control pests.
Hat/tip Billybob in Arizona
ERJ, California has been fettered by a combination of reducing releases, not building up water reservoirs, and continually increasing the population while draining the fossil waters. Add to that a Mediterranean (helpful sometimes in my mind to think of it as a monsoon) climate with droughts - and they do come more frequently than not - and these sorts of things are bound to happen. Oddly enough, I just learned today that California would also be the 10th largest agricultural nation (not state) if it was independent.
ReplyDeleteRecharging the water table would be a grand idea and I am honestly surprised someone has not thought of it earlier. I believe there are some parts of the wildlife reserve to the southwest of Sacramento that this is done in, but not fields proper. Given the continued near drought status, anything would be worth a try.
In terms of no water release - just something else to add to what is turning into a horrible food year.
The people in charge of water in Kali are rarely if ever qualified for the job. Such jobs are handed out as political rewards. Therefore the decisions they make are based on politics, not science.
ReplyDeleteIn California the Resnicks are the world’s biggest producers of pistachios and almonds, and they also hold vast groves of lemons, grapefruit, and navel oranges. All told, they claim to own America’s second-largest produce company, worth an estimated $4.2 billion.
ReplyDeleteThe Resnicks have amassed this empire by following a simple agricultural precept: Crops need water. Having shrewdly maneuvered the backroom politics of California’s byzantine water rules, they are now thought to consume more of the state’s water than any other family, farm, or company. They control more of it in some years than what’s used by the residents of Los Angeles and the entire San Francisco Bay Area combined.
And there you have one of the basic California water problems.