Eusebio R. Sheffield State water regulators cut 331 water rights in the Russian River watershed beginning Friday, ending a week-long reprieve caused by late-season rainfall that prevented the imposition of restrictions earlier this summer.
The long-awaited order means that several hundred ranchers, winegrowers and other landowners are now barred from exercising rights to draw water from the river and some of its tributaries, due to a insufficient supply.
“We get more and more efficient over time, but it still hurts when you’re told you can’t irrigate on your property anymore,” said Duff Bevill, winemaker and vineyard manager for the Dry Creek area, who oversees 1,200 acres. “It’s a difficult dry agriculture. If it was easy, we would all do it.
But the ordinance means different things to different water rights holders. Some may have alternative water sources or other active water rights, while some may participate in a new voluntary water-sharing agreement that allows those with sufficient water to transfer a portion of their right to water to those who are restricted.
Margo Warnecke Merck is vineyard and ranch manager at Warnecke Ranch & Vineyards, between the Russian River and Chalk Hill Road east of Healdsburg. The land has belonged to his family for more than a century. She knows from experience that the water stored over winter in a reservoir on the property will be enough to irrigate the vines until harvest, even if one of her five water rights is reduced.
But she also welcomed the opportunity to help others who might not be so lucky and joined the sharing agreement, which was drawn up by regional stakeholders and approved by the National Council of control of water resources last month.
The program attracted 135 water rights holders, including the city of Ukiah and the Russian Flood Control and Water Conservancy Improvement District, who have water to share.
“We’re all trying to work together, I hope,” Merck said. “We are all in the same boat.”
One of those hoping to benefit is Isaul “Junior” Macias, vineyard manager at Hoot Owl Creek Vineyard in Alexander Valley, whose water entitlement was reduced on Friday and is part of the water-sharing agreement. ‘water.
But Macias said he has also taken significant steps to prepare for the inevitable this year, including embracing the use of soil agents which are applied to his vineyards via the drip system and help limited irrigation inputs to penetrate deeply and stay longer in the root zone.
Additionally, 20 acres of unproductive vines were uprooted, further reducing water requirements.
In addition, a huge problem with leaking irrigation pipes, caused largely by thirsty wildlife chewing on the pipes, has been reduced by leaving buckets of water for the animals at the end of the rows of vines.
“I feel a lot more comfortable going forward this year compared to last year because of the steps we’ve taken and I’m a fan of this water sharing program,” said said Macias. “It’s still pretty new, so we’ll see moving forward.”
The majority of those affected are in the upper part of the Russian river, along the main arm, and have what are called “riparian water rights”. Riparian rights apply to those whose land touches water, said Sam Boland-Brien, supervising engineer with the state’s Water Resources Control Division of Water Rights.
The list of reduced water rights includes numerous wineries in Mendocino and Sonoma counties, including areas like Alexander Valley and Knights Valley, as well as entities like the Pepperwood Foundation, California’s Lytton Rancheria and the Sonoma County Water Agency, however, like many others. , the water agency holds several water rights in the watershed.
All but two of the affected water rights are located upstream from the confluence of Dry Creek, state water regulators said.
The current order has far less impact than last year’s cuts, which suspended about 18,000 water rights in the upper and lower watersheds starting in August, as Lake Mendocino sank. shrunk to near its record high of 12,081 acre feet, set in 1977. The lake reached 12,864 acre feet before rain arrived last fall, partially filling the reservoir but still leaving a deficit . Thursday it was at 50,627 acre feet. (An acre-foot is a unit of measurement equal to 325,851 gallons, or about the amount of water needed to flood most of a football field one foot deep.)
This year’s cuts come a month earlier than last year’s.
“It’s another month in the middle of summer, with some people without water,” Bevill said. “This is an additional four weeks of potential irrigation stress. Welcome to farming.
This round of restrictions is unlikely to be the last as drought conditions intensify this summer and flow reductions through the Potter Valley Power Station to Lake Mendocino are announced.
Decreased water transfers from the Eel River through the disabled hydroelectric project into the East Fork Russian River and eventually into the Ukiah area reservoir would directly affect downstream users and could lead to further reductions.
Erik Ekdahl, deputy director of the Water Rights Division, told the National Water Resources Control Board in June that he expected a “quite significant” drop in reservoir flows once regulators Energy authorities will have decided how far to allow diversions.
Even at the current relatively high flows through the Potter Valley, Lake Mendocino only holds 58% of its target storage level for this time of year with a full season of warm weather ahead and many months before heavy rain can be realistically anticipated.
Water is released from the reservoir at a level just high enough to meet federal requirements for the protection of salmon and rainbow trout and other basic human health and safety needs. environment and recreation.
In areas of the watershed where there is no longer a “natural flow” of rain and runoff, those with riparian diversion rights have been told there is too little water for them.
Alexander Valley winemaker Dennis Murphy of Murphy Ranch has had his water rights reduced which he wouldn’t use now anyway as it only allows him to draw water from the river for during the wet winter months to store it for the summer.
But he was among those who worked for many months to develop the voluntary water sharing scheme and said he encouraged everyone around him to sign up.
Otherwise, “it’s an on/off switch if you’re not involved,” he said.
You can contact editor Mary Callahan (her) at 707-521-5249 or [email protected] On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.
