New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River  is now at 2,010,765 acre feet of storage.

And the expectation is between the above average snowpack on April 1 plus continuing storms it could near its 2.4 million acre-foot capacity by month’s end.

“New Melones has been releasing  above minimum baseflow for much of the winter and into spring because new Melones was relatively full in the fall and needed to maintain at or below 1.970 million acre feet for flood control purposes in the winter,” noted South San Joaquin Irrigation District General Manager Peter Reitkerk.

It means water releases will continue to be robust but not as heavy as a year ago.

The United States Geological Survey gauge on the San Joaquin River at the Airport Way bridge south of Manteca was at 13.35 feet Wednesday.

That is down significantly from a year ago when the flow was at 28.80 feet. However, it is still above normal for this time of year.

SSJID — that along with Oakdale Irrigation District that split the rights to the first 600,000 acre feet of water that flows into new Melones each year — will be receiving its full allotment.

SSJID provides agricultural irrigation water to over 50,000 acres surrounding Escalon, Ripon and Manteca, and wholesale drinking water to over 215,000 residents in Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy.

The water that the two districts don’t use as part of their annual allotment is held in a conservation account capped at 200,000 acre feet  at New Melones.

 The conservation account is ‘spilled’ when water is released out of New Melones at a rate above minimum base-flow requirements for storage management purposes.

That means the more robust releases can cut into the two districts’ conservation account.

The conservation account is a safeguard, if you will, for the two districts when there is a dry water year.

And that is why excessive releases beyond minimum base-flow requires for storage management can work against SSJID and OID in terms of water outlook for multiple years.

The bottom line for this year still remains that SSJID is in good shape.

“We will likely still see increased river flows/releases operations for the foreseeable future given the snowpack and expected runoff in the spring,” Reitkerk said.

It is one of the reasons SSJID aggressively pursues water conservation.

The district started the irrigation season on March 13.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com