Wet winter bringing summer benefits

The city of Porterville has already realized a savings of more than $175,000 this summer because water levels in the city’s wells are higher than a year ago.

Last winter’s rainfall - 18.20 inches of rain in Porterville - was not a record, but it certainly ranked in the top 10 wettest years.

More importantly, the rain and snow came early making for one of the longest, continuous release of water from Success Dam in decades.

Mike Reed, deputy Public Works director for the city, said on average the static groundwater table has risen more than 18 feet since last summer, but he said a more impressive figure is how much the water depth is up when the pumps are running.

“It’s up 8.2 feet per well over last year. That’s pretty impressive,” said Reed, pointing out that reading shows there is strong flow of water underneath the city.

That higher water table, he said, has reduced pumping costs $177,000 so far.

Dan Vink, general manager of the Lower Tule Irrigation District, said when they last measured the wells in February, the average depth of the wells had gone up 10 feet in the past year. That’s on top of a 5-foot gain last year. He is certain that will improve more as water has been running in nearly every ditch, canal, stream or river in the area since mid-December and those waterways continue to hold water.

On top of that, every recharge basin - where water is placed to filter down to the underground aquifers - has been full since December.

“We’re looking on running water well into the fall,” he said, adding that he has been with the district 15 years and he has not seen a longer water run. Vink said they could be running water into the next rainy season.

“It’s not unprecedented, but certainly is unusual,” he said.

And, water is not just running in Porterville. The Central Valley has been on a flood watch for the past several weeks as the deep snow pack melts in the Sierra. Water is flowing over Millerton Dam and Pine Flat is nearly full. Lake Success has been at its reduced capacity of 40,000 acre feet since December.

Vink said the local area has also benefited from those releases, especially those served by the Friant-Kern Canal from Millerton. That water has been available to farmers, reducing their need to pump water for irrigation and using that water for recharge.

“Most of our districts have been keeping our recharge basins full,” said Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Users Association. Officials expect the April through July runoff through Millerton will be 2.2 million acre feet. That’s 175 percent of average. Most reservoirs just saw last week the inflow finally beginning to drop off.

He said the releases have been “unprecedented” and “It should turn out to be a fantastic year.”

What has made the year more unusual is the length of the releases. It is not uncommon to see a late snow melt, but the big storms that moved over the state the last two weeks of December led to earlier than usual releases. The Tule River has been since late December.

The Porter Slough has had water since Dec. 19 when the first big storm dumped more than 2 inches in one day in Porterville and December ended with more than 7 inches of rain.

“I don’t remember the slough running this long and I’ve bee here 22 years,” said Reed, adding that water has been running down the Poplar ditch most of the year as well.

It is not all so rosy. Jacobsma pointed out that more than 1 million acre feet of water released from Friant will not be utilized and lost to the sea. And, Vink noted that while the well levels are up, they are still “25-30 feet below where we were before the drought began.”

Those depths today are 75 to 110 feet deep depending on the well.

Still, no one is complaining.

“It’s just been an ideal spring. If this is climate change, I’ll take it every year,” said Jacobsma.