The San Luis Reservoir has fallen to just 10% capacity, its lowest level in 25 years.
The below pictures were taken Thursday.
“These pictures speak volumes about the gross mismanagement of the Central Valley Project,” said BBID general manager Rick Gilmore. “We simply cannot continue to prioritize failing environmental policies over the survival of agriculture.”
Despite above-average rainfall this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced in April a 5% allocation for south-of-Delta CVP contractors, a harsh blow for farmers in Byron-Bethany Irrigation District’s (BBID) Central Valley Project service area near Tracy.
“The broken state of San Luis Reservoir reflects the broader reality that the CVP, as a water supply project, has been broken by the policy choices of the Federal government,” said Jason Peltier, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
“The unending practice of taking water from human use and giving it to fish in hopes of helping the fish is a failed enterprise,” Peltier added. “The fish are not responding at all. At the same time human social and economic destruction continues to accelerate. Shameful.”