Orange County Register

The agency that manages much of the state’s water supply announced its lowest initial allocation ever — just 5 percent of the amount that downstream water agencies requested.

The low figure is likely to be revised upward once winter rains hit the state, and Orange County water officials say the preliminary figure won’t prompt any new action.

But the lowest-ever allocation is another sign that California remains unusually dry, its reservoirs alarmingly low.

“There’s a 90 percent chance the allocation will increase as we move through the winter months,” said Ted Thomas, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. “This is a very conservative estimate.”

Until the rains come in winter and spring, the agency, which is required to make its initial allocation for the following year by Dec. 1, can base its estimate only on the amount of storage in State Water Project reservoirs.

That storage also is at an extremely low point, Thomas said, though not at historic lows. One principle reservoir for the State Water Project, Lake Oroville north of Sacramento, is at 52 percent of normal, Thomas said; the San Luis Reservoir, south of the California Bay Delta, is at 48 percent of normal.

Much also depends on delta pumping restrictions to protect the threatened delta smelt; the periodic restrictions have already reduced water supplies sent south.

The 5 percent allocation represents 200,000 acre feet of water. The 29 water agencies that receive supplies from the state Water Project had requested just over 4 million acre feet, Thomas said. One acre foot is enough to supply two typical households for one year.

Last year’s 15 percent initial allocation was later raised to 40 percent. What had been the lowest initial allocation before the most recent one, 10 percent in 1993, was increased to 100 percent after winter storms.

The Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles, the region’s water wholesaler, won’t consider changes in its allocations to downstream agencies, including Orange County’s, unti April, said spokesman Bob Muir.

“It’s still early in the water year,” Muir said. “But this is reflective of the hill we have to climb toward water reliability.”

The Municipal Water District of Orange County also will not take any new action because of the low initial allocation from the state, although the agency, which passes state water on to south Orange County, is in the midst of a water conservation push. Instead, the agency will wait to see what the water picture looks like in spring.

A 5 percent allocation, however, is a powerful signal of the state’s dry times.

“If it stayed at that level, it would be a horrible situation,” said Karl Seckel, district engineer at the Municipal Water District.

(Photo of Lake Oroville marina courtesy state Department of Water Resources; normally, bare ground is underwater.)

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