Upper Swanston Ranch, Inc. Instream Flow Water Purchase Agreement

Upper Swanston Ranch, Inc. Instream Flow Water Purchase Agreement

The Instream Flow Water Purchase Program provides funding for the acquisition of environmentally beneficial instream flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed to be provided January through June. The water transfers and purchases must measurably enhance streamflow at a time and location necessary to provide fisheries or ecosystem benefits or improve upon existing flow conditions. The Upper Swanston Ranch, Inc. is a family-owned corporation located in the Yolo Bypass just north of the Interstate 80 and adjacent railroad tracks for several decades. The ranch has been farmed over the past 60 years, growing a variety of crops including tomatoes, corn, milo, rice, and sunflower. The Upper Swanston Ranch Inc. water purchase agreement will temporarily fallow or leave idle (unfarmed) 696 acres of historically irrigated agricultural lands to reduce diversions and retain water in the Tule Canal and Toe Drain. This water purchase agreement will be in place until Upper Swanston Ranch, Inc., meets a total water volume commitment of 39,600 acre-feet in dry, below normal, and above normal water year types (middle WYTs). By ceasing irrigation diversions of water in middle WYTs, approximately 3,300 acre-feet of water that would have been diverted to fields to grow crops would flow through the Tule Canal and Toe Drain in the Yolo Bypass to the lower Sacramento River and into the Delta. This will leave 696 acres of farmland that was previously irrigated between the months of April 1 and October 1 as fallowed land, resulting in a corresponding increase in the amount of water in the Tule Canal, Toe Drain and Sacramento River from April 1 through October 30, with the majority of flows retained instream from April 1 to June 30, consistent with reduced diversions during months reflecting historical irrigation practices and the terms of relevant water rights. By fallowing or leaving lands idled, only water resulting from natural hydrologic conditions will cover the 696 acres of farmland in the project location in middle WYTs from April 1 to October 30. The water remaining in the Tule Canal and resulting in waters remaining in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is for the benefit of the aquatic and riparian ecosystems, to preserve and benefit sensitive aquatic biological resources, to promote ecological resilience, to provide climate change adaptation, and to provide other biological benefits to native species that utilize the aquatic environment.

Unincorporated

Yolo

Unincorporated