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Central Valley’s drought water bank expansion OK’d
SACRAMENTO September 8, 2009 11:43am 
• Could make 30,000 acre-feet of additional water available • Feds say it will not impact protected snake The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it has approved a request that could make an additional 30,000 acre-feet of water available to the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority this month through the 2009 Drought Water Bank.
Approval means that the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, which is in the Sacramento Valley, will be able to sell up to 30,000 acre-feet of water that recently became available. TCCA found that its farmers now have water that can be sold to water users south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The water became available due to increased allocations, shifting to crops that use less water and increased use of groundwater. The significance of the amendment is the availability of water from a new source: TCCA was not originally proposed a source of water for the water bank.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says none of the crop shifting involves rice lands, which can be habitat to the giant garter snake, a protected species, so the changes will not increase impacts on the protected species.
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