Feds: California reservoirs only half full after big storms

FRESNO, Calif. – The recent onslaught of El Nino storms only slightly increased the levels of California reservoirs that now stand at half of historic depths for this time of year, federal officials said Friday while releasing an initial water outlook for 2016.

The federally operated reservoirs that supply farms and cities throughout the agriculture-rich Central Valley are now 49 percent full, compared with 47 percent on Oct. 1, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said.

Much of the heavy rainfall in recent weeks has soaked into the landscape left parched by four years of drought, and the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada has grown but hasn’t started to melt off and replenish the critically low reservoirs, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Shane Hunt said.

“It’s been raining and snowing,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot more.”

The bureau’s outlook came as federal water managers prepare to announce how much water will be available for Central Valley farmers this summer.

Johnny Amaral, deputy general manager at Westlands Water District, said federal officials have told his district not to expect any surface water this year. Westlands distributes federal water to hundreds of farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

The state Department of Water Resources, which manages part of California’s vast water system, said in early December that it anticipated releasing 10 percent of supplies sought by farmers this year – half of the last year’s allocation.