CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Farmers to Get 50% of Usual Water Total

Agricultural customers of the Central Valley Project, the largest water delivery system in the state, will receive 50% of their normal water allocation this year, the U.S Bureau of Reclamation announced. The allocation marks the third year in a row that Central Valley farmers have endured reduced water supplies. Farmers got 25% of their normal supplies in 1991 and 1992. Federal officials said the reduced supply this year is due to lingering effects of the state’s drought and new demands for water for fish and wildlife. About 800,000 acre-feet of the project’s 5.3 million acre-feet of water this year has been set aside for fisheries in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under legislation passed by Congress last year.