Quote:HB, never ask a farmer about water unless you have a lot of time!


Short answer is yes it's better. I heard yesterday that our snow pack is at 88% of normal. I'm assuming normal is like a 10-year average or something because in the last few years we've had no real snow pack at all.


I like to look at this site <a class="bbc_url" href='http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/rescond.pdf'>http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/rescond.pdf</a> which shows a pretty quick and easy graph of all our water storage.


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Long answer and long-term wise we'll still be in trouble, we definitely aren't looking at a "one rainy season and your fixed" situation. I'm not sure if your familiar with the Delta Smelt (<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/us/threatened-smelt-touches-off-battles-in-californias-endless-water-wars.html?_r=0'>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/us/threatened-smelt-touches-off-battles-in-californias-endless-water-wars.html?_r=0</a>) or the San Joaquin Salmon Restoration (<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.restoresjr.net'>http://www.restoresjr.net</a>) but basically due to those two issues, it's a constant battle between how much water to send down our rivers and how much to conserve for farming - when we really don't have enough to satisfy either.


Personally I don't take county water (ditch water from the snow pack) but last I heard Madera County will not be allowing water this year and Fresno County will allow two irritations I believe. That's two total waterings to your crop for the year, so if you don't have a pump - it's trouble. For the two big crops, grapes can survive that and produce a half crop. I'm not sure almonds would survive the year with that amount of water - which is kind of what you see when you drive up I5 these days.


I sit right on the County line so I'm surrounded by neighbors either not getting enough water or getting none at all. Some people with a good pump situation began selling water to neighbors and pumping it down to them to help them out last year. I'm not sure it's going to be any better this year or if anyone will be willing to share again this year.


Everyone's solution right now is just to dig deeper wells, which only takes things so far before all of us will really be up a creek. It's kind of like that movie There Will Be Blood. Your neighbor drinks your milkshake.


In the future a lot of us hope we can improve our water storage ability. It's felt that on the whole Ca gets plenty of water in say, a 20-year period - but we don't have enough capacity to store it for the 5-7 year droughts we experience. The main idea most farmers I know get behind is the Temperance Flat Dam Project (<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/storage/docs/10-14-2014_meeting/2014102427x39_Portrait_posters.pdf'>http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/storage/docs/10-14-2014_meeting/2014102427x39_Portrait_posters.pdf</a>) but the State decided to build the bullet train instead - which may or may not still happen. Total mess.