Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Sign Agreement to Create More Water Reliability

In January, the Settlement Contract board joined the Bureau of Reclamation to sign the Drought Protection Program Agreement (DPP) for the Sacramento River. The DPP contains a series of investments that will lead to improved water supply reliability in future years to benefit our farms, communities, economy, and the environment. The DPP is independent but related to the new plan for the Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project and Delta facilities of the State Water Project.

 The goal is to ensure stability and resilience in our water system and avoid repeating the devastating impact we saw in 2022 to the west-side of the Sacramento Valley, where there was only an 18% water supply to farms, wildlife refuges and cities, and disadvantaged communities.

 The DPP will be implemented in specific critically dry years with low carryover storage and less than 2.5 million acre-feet of inflow into Shasta Reservoir. In these critically dry years over the next decade, our contract supplies will be reduced up to an additional 500,000 acre-feet, over the current contract reduction, with water suppliers receiving infrastructure funding intended to help replace or mitigate for this new water supply shortage. Importantly, the contracts will remain in place and the SRSC’s will receive at least 50% of their contract supply.

To learn more about the Drought Protection Program, please visit:
https://sacvalleywater.org/updates-docs/dpp