Federal Agency Announces Cut in Water Deliveries

California’s largest water supplier to farms--the federal government--took the expected step Thursday of cutting deliveries by up to 50% in the Central Valley because of the state’s worst drought since 1977.

The cutback marks the second time in history and the first time in 13 years that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been unable to make full deliveries to its Central Valley Project customers.

The cuts affect about 22,000 farms from Redding to Bakersfield and more than 3 million people, all of whom receive water from federal dams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Most of the water is used by agriculture, but the cutback will also reduce water supplies to two densely populated counties in the San Francisco Bay Area--Santa Clara and Contra Costa.

Jason Peltier, manager of the Central Valley Project Water Assn., said some farmers will be able to pump more ground water to make up the loss of federal water, but the cuts may bankrupt others and lead to higher food prices.

Bureau of Reclamation officials had said earlier this year the cutback would be necessary because for the fourth straight year spring runoff from the Sierra will be below normal. Heavy rains in March, 1989, averted the cuts last year, but this year the rainy season ended April 1 without any major storms to refill reservoirs.

Most farms will get 50% less federal water than usual, but in some areas the cutback will be only 25% because of special water rights and contracts signed with the federal government.