Monday January 13, 2025
Shasta Scout —
Farmers in parts of Shasta and Tehama counties have officially entered a new contractual agreement with a party which many in the District view as an existential threat: the federal government.
On January 9, the five-member board of the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District (ACID) voted unanimously to opt into a federal Drought Protection Program (DPP). The agreement is the result of negotiations between the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors (SRSC), an umbrella group of water irrigators that includes ACID.
The DPP lays out a formal contingency plan for how water will be used by ACID and other SRSC members during California’s “critically dry years”. Board members say the agreement in a joint effort by regional, state and federal officials effort to prevent the kind of devastating drought conditions that ACID water users faced during 2022.
Under current arrangements, ACID’s water allocation during critically dry years is supposed to be at least 75% of normal. Under the new twenty-year agreement, the allocation would be no less than 50% of normal during the first ten years and no less than 70% of normal during the remaining ten years.