Rainy Winter Means More Water For Central Valley Cities, Farms

California’s wet winter has reservoirs filling up, and that means more water for the Central Valley’s farmers and cities.

The Central Valley Project consists of 20 reservoirs from Trinity Dam in Northern California to Bakersfield 400 miles south. It provides water to farms, cities, industry and wildlife in 29 counties.

CVP Operations Manager Jeff Rieker said this season’s storms will allow more customers to receive greater water supplies.

“We are generally above the 15-year average across the board in all of our reservoirs,” he said. “Really healthy gains in storage in each of our reservoirs.”

And for farmers such as Paul Sanguinetti of Stockton, that means getting 100 percent of his water allocation.

“Means we can farm 100 percent of the ground that we have water for,” he said. “I mean, we’re not restricted on how many acres we can plant.”

Sanguinetti said every bit of water will give his farm more storage in the ground for dry years.

The California Department of Water Resources reports that the current snowpack is 140 percent of the historical average, and overall precipitation is 120 percent.