Fresno Irrigation District Won’t Make Surface Water Deliveries For First Time Ever

For the first time ever, growers in the Fresno Irrigation District will not receive their regular surface water deliveries, and the drought is to blame.

No surface water means growers will have to rely on ground water.

The Fresno Irrigation district says it’s history in the making, but not in a good way.

Very little rainfall means a low snowpack level, which means little water flowing into the Kings River.

The Kings River is the water source for the 250,000 acres in the Fresno Irrigation District.

They say the only thing they’ll be able to provide is a groundwater recharge operation. They’ll deliver what little water they have into the system to benefit growers, the rural communities, and residential wells to try to maintain groundwater levels.

Gary Serrato, General Manager of the Fresno Irrigation District says these are the worst conditions he has seen.

"Last year we actually delivered water for two months where water was actually diverted by growers and put onto their farms. This year, because of how critically dry it is–and this is the magnitude of it, we don’t even have enough water but to do groundwater recharge," Serrato says. 

For growers on the east side where there is no aquifer, the district will provide water for one month–what they call a hardship run. Those deliveries will begin June 1.

Serrato says just about every grower out there is pumping groundwater as a back up water supply.

As the water levels continue to drop, the district hope the groundwater recharge operation will help maintain water levels.