Prioritizing full demands of community water systems A management strategy in the COEQWAL scenario library
This strategy changes the allocation of CVP and SWP surface supplies so that deliveries to municipal and industrial contractors sufficient to meet as much of the full contract entitlements as possible receive top priority. Remaining supply, if any, is allocated to agricultural contracts. Federal refuge allocations are maintained as in the baseline Current Operations scenario.
This brief describes a scenario in which the full contract amounts for community water systems are prioritized over deliveries to agriculture, one of 28 management strategies in the COEQWAL scenario library. Each strategy is simulated once under each of five hydroclimates; the references note at the end of this brief lists the model runs.
§2 What this strategy changes
The strategy prioritizes the allocation of surface supplies in the CVP and SWP systems to municipal and industrial (M&I) contractors sufficient to meet as much of the full contract entitlements as possible. CVP agricultural contracts (including Settlement and Exchange) are assigned a lower priority than under standard allocation procedures to accommodate the prioritized M&I deliveries. SWP contracts are split into agricultural and M&I, with a higher-priority allocation made to the first 100% of M&I contract amounts; remaining available supply, if there is any, is allocated to agricultural contracts. All demands considered in allocations are set by maximum contract entitlements on an annual basis.
No allocation adjustments are made for non-project M&I deliveries, although, where the existing code structure supported it, deliveries to those users are prioritized through higher weights (or penalties for shortages).
§3 The configuration in detail
The table compares the eight operational fields that define this strategy against current operations — the strategy that represents existing operational rules, recent (2020) land use, and TUCPs. Rows that match current operations are shown in light gray; rows that differ are highlighted.
| Aspect | Current operations | This strategy |
|---|---|---|
| TUCP actions | Active | Active |
| SGMA actions | None | None |
| Land use | 2020 LandIQ | 2020 LandIQ |
| Delta regulations | Standard | Standard |
| BiOps | 2019 / 2020 ITP | 2019 / 2020 ITP |
| Infrastructure | Standard | Standard |
| Flows | Standard | Standard |
| Allocation / priorities | Standard | Top priority for full contract demand level of surface deliveries to CVP and SWP M&I contractors |
§4 Lineage and source
This strategy was developed by the COEQWAL team using the Current Operations as the base from which changes were made. The scenario was developed in coordination with the project's Drinking Water / Community Water Systems group. The key changes in this scenario are the allocation and priority logic. The CalSim model files for this strategy are referenced by the run IDs in the references note at the end of this brief.
§6 What this doesn't say
This brief describes a scenario representation in CalSim, not a real-world policy proposal or implementation plan. The strategy as modeled may not capture all details necessary to support direct translation to actual operations. The brief does not predict, evaluate, or recommend any outcome — it describes what the scenario changes about CalSim's representation of the system. For what the model produces under this strategy, see the result briefs referenced in §7.
§7 See results for this strategy
To see modeled outcomes under this strategy across all nine key outcomes at the reference hydroclimate, see the Community water systems theme brief.
To see outcomes at a specific location of interest, see the relevant LOI briefs — particularly those for community water systems.
References — model runs
Each strategy is simulated once under each of five hydroclimates. The table lists the model run behind this strategy and the current-operations run it is compared against, for each hydroclimate, so any reader can trace this page to specific CalSim runs.
| Hydroclimate | This strategy | Current operations |
|---|---|---|
| Historical hydroclimate (adjusted) | s0037 | s0020 |
| Moderate climate stress (EC-Earth3-Veg) | s0149 | s0134 |
| Moderate-high climate stress (cc50) | s0077 | s0047 |
| High climate stress (cc95) | s0097 | s0056 |
| Extreme climate stress (TaiESM1) | s0123 | s0108 |