Agency plans small allocation to clients, including Benicia; 5 percent expected

The State Water Project has announced that because of February and March storms, contractors will be allowed to take 5 percent of their water allocation.

But the increase won’t be effective until September.

The decision is a reversal of the state’s earlier announcement that it would release none of the allocated SWP water, and returns the status to the rate of allocations announced in November 2013.

Even then, Benicia’s share is about 860 acre-feet of water, not even 10 percent of what the city normally uses in a year.

Benicia as a whole consumes about 10,586 acre-feet of water in a year. One acre-foot is 326,000 gallons. Normally, the city counts on its contract with SWP to provide 85 percent of its water supply.

Benicia contracts with SWP for 17,200 acre-feet of Sacramento Delta water, and pays $352,600 for its contract, no matter how much it receives.

Usually the city gets 50 to 80 percent of its allocation. SWP water historically has been less expensive than the Solano Water Project water Benicia gets through the Solano Irrigation District and Vallejo.
The city has a combined 3,100 acre-feet from those Solano Project sources, and another 600 acre-feet in Lake Herman.

Another 4,900 acre-feet is banked in Solano Project reserves, but if Benicia uses that water it won’t be replenished in the future. Nor can the city access its reserves in the Mojave Water Agency until the SWP allowance is increased to 20 percent.

Benicia has 5,100 acre-feet reserved in SWP carryover water — supplies it was allotted but didn’t use — but how much of that will be made available depends on whether the state Department of Water Resources turns off the pumps in May or June.

That could limit city access to just 1,000 acre-feet, interim Public Works Director Steve Salomon said earlier this month, when hints that the state might revise allocations first were leaked.

Since the state made its series of unprecedented allocation announcements, Benicia’s City Council authorized spending up to $900,000 for up to 6,000 acre-feet of water from other sources.

While the 5-percent allocation is an improvement on the zero allocation, City Manager Brad Kilger said residents, companies and Benicia’s municipal operations need to stay the course to reduce water consumption until the drought ends.

“My understanding is that the increase will not be effective until after Sept. 1,” Kilger said. “Therefore it will not have any effect on our immediate water supply issues, and we plan on proceeding with our current water conservation efforts, which will be presented to the Council at their April 29 meeting.”

Those “current water conservation efforts” involve asking residents and companies to cut their water consumption voluntarily by 20 percent, the same level requested by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year when he announced California was in a drought emergency.

“I do know we are already seeing some results from conservation, but I don’t have any numbers yet,” Kilger said.

City employees are developing a conservation awareness campaign that would tell residents and companies how they can cut back on water consumption and why such measures are important. The official rollout of the campaign is expected later this month.

Part of that focus will be on reducing outdoor irrigating and use of water for landscaping, since that accounts for much of the water residents and commercial interests use.

If voluntary measures fail to reach a 20-percent cut in water consumption, the Council may vote on imposing mandatory restrictions, officials have said.

The state Department of Water Resources announced Friday that it would increase the amount of water contractors could take from zero to 5 percent.

“The previous zero-percent allocation was the first time in the history of the SWP that such an allocation was announced,” the department statement said.

“While a 5-percent allocation remains historically low, and a slim fraction of the water deliveries that SWP contactors pay for in full, the increase is welcomed,” department officials said through the statement.

“Twenty-five million people and 750,000 acres of farmland depend on the SWP for a significant portion of their water supplies. The additional water allocations announced today will provide increased flexibility for SWP contractors and improve local water management efforts.”

“As water agencies continue to struggle with managing historically low water supplies, (Friday’s) increased allocation will help temper some of the most severe impacts of the drought,” State Water Contractors General Manager Terry Erlewine said.

“This additional water only amounts to the bare minimum of what is needed to ensure the most at-risk districts don’t run out of water, and gives all agencies some increased flexibility for water management.

“While good news in the short term, the water supply outlook remains bleak and water agencies will continue to take steps to mitigate against the ongoing impacts of the drought.”