NEWS RELEASE
Bill Stretch, General Manager
(559) 233-7161
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2022
Despite Critically Dry Conditions, FID Supplies Allow for Additional Month Run
The Fresno Irrigation District (FID) Board of Directors made the decision at a special meeting held yesterday to extend water deliveries to all agricultural customers through the month of August. FID began water deliveries on June 1, initially announcing a two-month water delivery season for 2022. FID will now be able to provide a three-month water season to farmers despite critically dry conditions and a third year of drought. The last day of regular water deliveries for the 2022 water delivery season is planned to be August 31.
“Like most of California, FID is experiencing a third significantly dry year in a row. However, the Kings River runoff was favorable to FID this spring, and, when combined with water carried over from 2021, FID has enough water supplies to provide our agricultural customers with an additional month of deliveries. This is great news for our District’s farmers who experienced a historically short one-month water delivery season in 2021,” said Bill Stretch, FID’s general manager. “FID anticipates that it will need to utilize nearly all its available water supplies to provide this three-month season. Since a June through August irrigation season traditionally has lower irrigation demands than a May through July season, this year’s three-month delivery season was made possible by delaying the start of water until June.”
FID will continue to convey water to the cities of Fresno and Clovis throughout the water year to their three surface water treatment plants, which keeps wells turned off and benefits local groundwater tables.
This year’s runoff on the Kings River is anticipated to be approximately 38 percent of average, with water deliveries in the FID service area expected to be around 300,000 acre-feet. By contrast, 2019 was a 170 percent year, and FID delivered 618,000 acre-feet within an eight-and-a-half-month irrigation season, which is considered FID’s longest irrigation season on record.
Comments