Drought: 'We're better off than most'

BUT IT'S BAD...

"We are hoping for a March Miracle or a Fabulous February."

- John Martin, Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District manager

John Martin, manager of the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District, is mapping out a battle plan to combat potential agriculture water shortages arising from the statewide drought.

The plan includes recovering district-owned water from the Kern Water Bank, utilizing unused wells, filling up the reservoir and meeting with growers to discuss scheduling of water consumption.

"My intent is to fill all the orders we have," Martin said.

'We are in an historic drought," Martin told the district's board of directors at their monthly meeting Jan. 15 at the district headquarters at Brite Lake. "It's historic by a great margin. Old records have been broken by 50 to 60 percent. San Francisco has had five inches of rain. The state is in dire straits as far as water.

"We're better off than most."

Like other customers of the State Water Project (SWP), the district received an allocation for 2014 of five percent of its adjudicated annual allowance. That amounts to 965 acre feet. The district has 1,000 acre feet left over from 2013.

An increase in SWP allotment to 15 percent plus the carryover, storage and wells, "could carry us through the summer," Martin said. "But there will be no water for recharge for the M&I [Municipal and Industrial] customers."

Residential taps are not about to dry up. "Having enough water for the people is not a problem," Martin said.