Quenching a neighbor's thirst

Woodbridge sells Mokelumne water to East Bay

The Woodbridge Irrigation District is helping residents in Alameda and Contra Costa counties with their critical water needs by selling them a little more than 6,000 acre-feet of water.

The irrigation district board approved the sale on Thursday, while the East Bay Municipal Utility District board approved it the previous day.

The deal calls for Woodbridge to sell at least 6,000 acre-feet for $1.2 million. EBMUD will receive as much as 9,000 acre-feet, based on how much water Woodbridge has available. The additional cost is $200 per acre-foot.

Woodbridge has between 6,000 and 7,000 acre-feet available to sell to EBMUD, according to John Wookey, Woodbridge irrigation District's assistant to the manager.

The deal is for this year only, through Oct. 15. EBMUD will use the water to help its 1.3 million East Bay customers who are subject to mandatory water rationing this year.

The Woodbridge district, which serves agricultural customers in Woodbridge, Thornton and areas west and south of Lodi, has water to sell EBMUD because Woodbridge had conserved water due to the dry winter, Wookey said.

Woodbridge's water savings dates back to July, when EBMUD informed Woodbridge officials that Woodbridge would get only 39,000 acre-feet of water from the Mokelumne River this year because Pardee Reservoir contained less than 375,000 acre-feet. Woodbridge normally gets 60,000 acre-feet during normal and wet winters. So WID cut down water allocations to its customers.

But Woodbridge Irrigation District filed a protest, claiming that Pardee had more water storage than EBMUD thought. After hours of negotiations with three arbitrators, the East Bay Municipal Utility District agreed in August to give the Woodbridge Irrigation District its full allocation of 60,000 acre-feet.

Since Woodbridge conserved water, thinking it would only get 39,000 acre-feet, the district had some extra water to sell to EBMUD.

Wookey said the water being sold across Altamont Pass isn't the same water that Lodi purchased from Woodbridge. Lodi has purchased five years worth of water at 60,000 acre-feet, but has "banked" the water because it doesn't have a water treatment plant yet to house the Woodbridge water.

Meanwhile, Ed Steffani, manager of the neighboring North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, criticized the Woodbridge-EBMUD deal because the Woodbridge water is leaving San Joaquin County.

North San Joaquin, which doesn't have the infrastructure to pump 20,000 acre-feet out of the Mokelumne River, has asked the city of Lodi to donate the water it purchased from Woodbridge to North San Joaquin to help replenish the parched groundwater basin in the northern and eastern part of the county. The Lodi City Council hasn't taken action on North San Joaquin's request.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.