After groups of volunteers helped measure snow depths in the Sierra, the state Department of Water last week released its latest State Water Project allotment numbers. A combination of the manual surveys and ongoing electronic measurements indicated that California’s snowpack water supply is currently at 106 percent of what it usually is at this time of year. Last year’s April 1 reading was just 81 percent.

The increased snowpack levels promted DWR to raise the State Water Project allotment to 20 percent of the contract amounts, which in Santa Barbara County, is about 2,400 acre-feet for the year. That is still below last year’s 40 percent allotment.

“As the water picture for this year becomes clearer, we can increase our deliveries to farms and communities throughout the state,” DWR director Mark Cowin said in a statement. “But the aftermath of three years of drought and regulatory restrictions on Delta pumping to protect fish species will keep this year’s allocation far below normal.

“This underscores, once again, the need to implement long-term solutions to improve water supply reliability.”

State Water administrators have tackled allotments cautiously this year, as Lake Oroville in Butte County — the State Water Project’s main reservoir, which serves about 25 million California residents and 750,000 acres of farmland — is currently only at 47 percent of its capacity.

The final allotment numbers will be released later this spring, and will be affected not only by precipitation, but by the health of endangered species such as the Delta smelt. Although some controversy has existed over the past few years regarding the impact of endangered fish upon farming operations in the Central Valley and vice versa, a National Academy of Sciences panel this year found pumping operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — the very heart of the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project delivery systems — to have an adverse affect on at least two species of endangered fish.

— Noozhawk staff writer Ben Preston can be reached at bpreston@noozhawk.com.