March 25, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
March storms boost State Water Project allocation to 45 percent
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — The
abundant March storms in
California will enable the
State Water Project to deliver
the most water it’s sent to cus-
tomers since 2012.
The state Department of
Water Resources has boost-
ed its allocation for most
residents to 45 percent of re-
quests, up from the 30 percent
it estimated in late February.
In all, the 29 water agen-
cies that contract for SWP
water will receive nearly 1.9
million acre-feet of their re-
quested 4.17 million acre-feet
of water in 2016, the state an-
nounced March 17. Together
the contractors serve about 25
million Californians and just
under 1 million acres of irri-
gated farmland.
While they caution anew
that the drought has not end-
ed, water regulators say the
boost was made possible by
rain and snow that pushed the
state’s two largest reservoirs
— Shasta Lake and Lake Oro-
ville — to slightly above their
historic levels for this time of
year.
“February reminded us
how quickly California’s
Courtesy of Calif. Dept. of Water Resources
Crews remove a temporary rock barrier from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta south of Sacramento in October. State oficials say
the March storms eliminated the need to reinstall the barrier, which was to keep saltwater from intruding in the drought-depleted Delta.
weather can turn from wet
to dry,” DWR director Mark
Cowin said in a statement,
referring to the more than
two-week period of warm and
dry conditions that caused the
statewide snow water content
to drop from above normal to
80 percent of normal.
“The lesson of this drought
is that we all need to make
daily conservation a way of
life,” he said.
After a series of delug-
es this month, many areas
are well above their average
rainfall totals for March. Sac-
ramento, for instance, had
received 4.97 inches for the
month as of March 17, well
above its normal 1.66 inches
for the month as of that date,
according to the National
Weather Service.
Among other beneits, the
storms will eliminate the need
for DWR to build a temporary
rock barrier to keep saltwater
out of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta, as crews
did in 2015.
The DWR made an ini-
tial allocation of 10 percent
of requested deliveries in
December but signaled the
allocation could increase if
a wet winter occurred. The
estimate of deliveries was
raised to 15 percent on Jan.
26 and to 30 percent on Feb.
24.
Last year’s 20 percent fi-
nal allocation was the state
project’s second lowest since
1991, when agricultural cus-
tomers got no water and mu-
nicipal customers received
30 percent of requests. In
2014, SWP deliveries were 5
percent to all customers.
This year’s deliveries
will be the state’s most since
2012, when 65 percent of
requests were met. The last
100 percent allocation was
in 2006.
The state’s boost comes
as federal officials say the
March storms could signifi-
cantly help Central Valley
Project deliveries, for which
they have yet to make a for-
mal allocation. The U.S. Bu-
reau of Reclamation’s initial
allocation could be made lat-
er this month.
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A federal judge has re-
fused the USDA’s request to
dismiss a lawsuit brought by
Idaho potato farmers against
restrictions related to the pale
cyst nematode.
The U.S. wasn’t known to
harbor the nematode, which
can reduce potato yields by
up to 80 percent, until the pest
was irst discovered in eastern
Idaho in 2006.
To prevent the nematode’s
spread, USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice enacted quarantine regu-
lations that affect roughly 175
square miles in Idaho’s Bon-
neville and Bingham counties.
Photo courtesy USDA
Pale cyst nematodes infect a
potato plant. A federal judge
has refused the USDA’s
request to dismiss a lawsuit
brought by Idaho potato farm-
ers against restrictions related
to the pale cyst nematode.
Farmers are prohibited
from selling potatoes and
other crops that risk carrying
the pest in interstate com-
merce unless they comply
with APHIS rules for infested
ields and those at risk of in-
festation.
Growers affected by the
restrictions have claimed the
testing requirements and oth-
er procedures are excessive
and go further than in other
countries where the nematode
is found.
A lawsuit iled last year by
13 farms accuses APHIS of
violating administrative law
by imposing the regulations in
an “arbitrary and capricious”
manner and failing to follow
public notice-and-comment
requirements, among other
allegations.
“APHIS’s ad hoc and ev-
er-changing protocols have
put, and will continue to put,
fields owned or farmed by
plaintiffs into a circuitous
and undefined state of reg-
ulation for an undefined pe-
riod of time,” the complaint
said.
Attorneys for USDA filed
a motion asking U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Edward Lodge
to dismiss the lawsuit on ju-
risdictional grounds because
the growers lack the legal
standing to challenge the
regulations in federal court.
Lodge has rejected that
argument, finding that the
farmers have plausibly
claimed they’ve sustained
injuries from the USDA’s
actions that can be rectified
in federal court.
ROP-32-52-2/#17
Judge refuses to dismiss pale cyst nematode lawsuit
13-2/#4N