BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The California snowpack is starting off strong, raising hopes for water resources throughout the drought-stricken state. But for farmers, these high numbers may not translate into more water for their crops.
The amount of snow high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains has a direct impact on the fields of crops below. Jason Giannelli, a fourth generation farmer in Kern County who grew up in the farm life, understands this.
“We just do what we gotta do to survive," said Giannelli. “They help with our crops right now, they help with future crops in the summer time. We’re doing future planning all the time.”
Giannelli's farms grow everything from corn to carrots to almonds.
After heavy winter storms, the Department of Water Resources surveys the snowpack. This year's survey reported 174% of its historians average, the third largest in nearly four decades.
"It gives us a measurement of where we are in our water year," said Jenny Holtermann, Executive Director of the Water Association of Kern County.
But even with several days of rain and storms, Giannelli says that doesn't necessarily mean good news for his farms.
“In this basin alone, we’re supposed to get close to a million acre feet, and we only got 5% of that," he said. “Last year we had to fallow ground, do different things, couldn’t grow as much corn. We had to come up with different things that don’t take as much water, so our cropping patterns just had to change.”
“We see these surveys and all these rainy days, it’s still up to the state to tell us how much we’re going to get," said Holtermann. “Farming has still just been given just a bare minimum allocation and that hasn’t changed.”
That 5% water allocation results in higher costs tricking throughout the industry, impacting availability and prices of certain foods.
“While the Kern County Farm Bureau and its members are grateful for recent rains and consider it a blessing, it is too early to tell how the recent rain and the snowpack will impact the water supply for local area farmers," said Patty Poire, Kern County Farm Bureau Board President. “Last year, we experienced rain and snow throughout most of January which provided very little relief. Should water levels increase, a lot will depend on government action to determine if water allocations from either the state or federal water projects will be increased."
