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While stored water in the California system has most of the state comfortable with the supply, there is a strong possibility that some water users on the Sacramento River system will see limited supplies of water this winter.

This could affect certain rice farmers who flood their fields for rice straw decomposition after harvest is complete, as well as duck clubs that use flooded rice fields to hunt ducks.

Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District have notified rice growers that normally have free flowing winter water, which usually begins November 1, that water could be not available or limited if the state enacts "Term 91."

Term 91 is part of the contracts water rights users agreed to in exchange for more water reliability, when dams such as Shasta were built. The rules, if enacted, would apply to 85 water users tapped into streams and tributaries that feed into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This includes the Sacramento River.

GCID General Manager Thad Beltner explained the dry spring and summer months have meant less water in the system. With tightening up of water allocations due to conditions in the delta, the state is "looking at everything more closely," Beltner said. "Historically there was more flexibility in the system."

Rice farmers typically harvest through October. A decade ago farmers could burn fields after harvest to get rid of the rice straw. But air quality laws have limited burning of rice fields to a small percentage of the farmed land. Now most farmers flood their fields and allow the straw to decompose.

This has been a boon for waterfowl populations, which use the rice fields for winter migration and feeding.

GCID has set up a system for property owners to notify the district that they want to flood, so that other water supplies could be found such as ground water and other options. The district is also setting up guidelines so flooding will avoid any spilling of the water available.

The dry spring conditions also made for an early planting of rice, so most growers should be done with harvest by the time water is shut off October 31, and will have enough time to prep fields for flooding.

Greg Mensik, deputy refuge manage at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge said he does not expect direct impacts to the refuge system if winter water flows are cut. Cuts of 25 percent can occur when there is a critically dry year. Mensik said the refuges would be managed so water was used on a fewer number of ponds and marshes. "We'd try to flood the most efficient areas in the fall and winter," he said.

However, if there is less water in rice fields, waterfowl that have stopped in fields to feed will be more attracted to the refuges, increasing the number of birds that use those lands.

Recent years have shown that the spread of bird diseases is lessened when birds are spread out over a larger amount of winter habitat, including rice fields.

Rice straw decomposition occurs more quickly when water is applied when the temperatures are still warm, in late September and early October.

Here's the web address for a map of the service area of Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District:
http://gcid.net/images/GCID District Map.pdf