Last month, the State Water Resources Control Board (SCWRB) held a public hearing on the pending water-right application of San Joaquin County for a permit to appropriate water from the South Fork American River at the Freeport Regional Water Authority Facility on the Sacramento River. The hearing spawned a lot of misinformed conjecture, especially among Sacramento County water interests, as to why San Joaquin County should receive priority water rights to the American River superseding other Sacramento-area water providers.

-Written by San Joaquin County Supervisors Chuck Winn and Kathy Miller