California hosts a substantial, complicated water rights system
that allocates water across the state. In addition to a dual
system — riparian and appropriate rights — today state courts
are recognizing expanded public trust values in determining
how the state’s water resources should be best used.
Water rights are governed mostly by state law. Water quality
issues, which may affect allocation, are regulated separately by
both federal and state laws. Water rights can be quite
contentious.
The Board of Supervisors Wednesday unanimously advanced a
proposed ordinance amendment that would align county
regulations with a court ruling in connection with water rights
in the Borrego Springs community. Supervisors also voted to
find that the amended ordinance complies with state
Environmental Quality Act guidelines. The supervisors will
consider adopting the updated ordinance during a second
reading, at their Oct. 11 meeting. In 2021, a San Diego
Superior Court judge ruled that users in the Borrego Springs
Subbasin have the right to pump groundwater.
Earlier this summer, I wrote about three bills that were poised
to make long overdue changes to California’s outdated and
inequitable water rights system. Whether you call it updating,
modernizing, or reforming, changes to the water rights system
have long been considered a political third rail—the electric
kind you don’t touch. This year, one of those water rights
bills, Senate Bill 389 (SB 389) made it through the gauntlet of
the legislature and will become law if Governor Newsom signs
it. The bill would give the State Water Resources Control Board
(the Water Board) the authority to verify pre-1914
appropriative and riparian water rights.
The 2023 California legislative session concluded on September
14, 2023. This article highlights new bills pertaining to water
rights, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and
emissions on the consumer and industry levels, as well as bills
that are being held over. … AB 1337: State Water
Resources Control Board: water diversion curtailment.
… AB 460: State Water Resources Control Board: water
rights and usage: interim relief: procedures. … SB 389:
State Water Resources Control Board: investigation of water
right.
An irrigation district in the Klamath Project can no longer
divert water from the Klamath River under a state-issued water
right without approval from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a
federal judge has determined. Reclamation sued the Klamath
Drainage District in July 2022 for taking water from the river
despite curtailments intended to protect endangered fish. The
2022 irrigation season was severely hampered in the project
following several consecutive years of drought. Reclamation
allotted just 62,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake
for irrigators, about 14% of full demand, including zero water
for districts with junior rights.
The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is one of the richest oil
shale deposits in the country. It is estimated to hold more
proven reserves than all of Saudi Arabia. Enefit, an Estonian
company, was the latest in a long line of firms that hoped to
tap it. It’s also the latest to see such plans collapse — but
perhaps not yet for good. The company has lost access to the
water it would need to unearth the petroleum and relinquished a
federal lease that allowed research and exploration on the
land. The two moves, made late last month, appear to signal the
end of Enefit’s plans to mine shale oil in the Uinta
Basin.
A water rights bill that made it through the Legislature this
year is, arguably, a much weakened version of its original
form, but the fact that it addresses senior rights at all is a
significant step, according to experts. Senate Bill 389, which
clarifies the state Water Resources Control Board’s ability to
investigate senior water rights, passed both the Assembly and
Senate as of September 12. The bill, authored by
Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica,) originally faced an
onslaught of opposition from the agriculture industry, with
about 200 agencies and organizations that came out against the
bill.
Imperial County’s largest farming family has lost again in its
years-long bid to gain control of valuable Colorado River water
allocations associated with its land. The Imperial Irrigation
District on Tuesday won a motion to dismiss a case by Mike
Abatti and several relatives, close friends and business
associates that closely mirrored an ultimately unsuccessful
series of cases they had brought all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which declined to hear their petition in 2021.
U.S. Southern District Court Judge Michael Anello, based in San
Diego, issued the motion to dismiss the new case after hearing
oral arguments from both sides a week ago, based on res
judicata, a legal term meaning that the matter already had been
judged.
Setting the course for a Colorado River with less water is an
enormous challenge that’s not likely to satisfy everyone. And
climate change has created a collision course with wildlife.
… The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is an
important player in the battle that’s ahead. A letter submitted
by USFWS to the Bureau of Reclamation has as many questions as
answers. … As agencies weigh in on how to manage the
river in the future, they are asking Reclamation to tell them
precisely the water conditions they might have to deal with in
protecting wildlife. It’s uncharted territory.
California legislators have passed a bill that aims to close a
long-standing loophole in the state’s water laws: Until now,
regulators haven’t had clear authority to investigate the water
rights of some of the biggest water users. These senior water
right holders, with claims dating to before 1914, use roughly a
third of the water that is diverted, on average, from the
state’s rivers and streams. They include cities and individual
landowners, as well as agricultural irrigation districts
supplying farms that produce nuts, rice and other crops. The
bill, Senate Bill 389, passed in a 50-17 Assembly vote on
Tuesday and is expected to be among the bills presented to Gov.
Gavin Newsom for signing. … Allen pointed out that
California’s existing water rights allocate far more
water than is available in an average year, and said the
State Water Board is tasked with making the system function at
a time when climate change is putting growing strains on water
supplies.
Dirt roads neatly bisect acres and acres of vibrant green
plants here: short, dense alfalfa plants fed by the waters of
the Colorado River, flowing by as a light brown stream through
miles of narrow concrete ditches. But on a nearby field, farmer
Ronnie Leimgruber is abandoning those ditches, part of a system
that has served farmers well for decades. Instead, he’s
overseeing the installation of new irrigation technology, at a
cost of more than $400,000, and with no guarantee it will be as
dependable as the open concrete channels and gravity-fed
systems that have long watered these lands. … What
Leimgruber is pursuing on his acreage is part business savvy
and part guarding against a drier future. Like many farmers in
this region, he’s figuring out how to keep growing his crops
with less water. Two decades of drought have shrunk the
Colorado River, which feeds farms in the Imperial Valley, an
agricultural oasis fed solely by the 82-mile All-American
Canal, which delivers river water to this arid Southern
California region.
Renowned winemaker Jayson Woodbridge is suing Napa County for
well policies allegedly restricting access to groundwater at
four of his vineyards. The vineyards, Double Vee Properties
LLC, Caldera Ranch LLC, Hundred Acre LLC and Hundred Acre Wine
Group Inc., told the US District Court for the Northern
District of California on Tuesday that Napa County violated
their rights under the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the
taking of private property without due process. The county’s
new well policies, which include reduced water use and
permitting criteria, “impair” the growers’ rights to access the
groundwater beneath their properties by requiring them to …
San Diego County supervisors have formally weighed in on a
contentious — and increasingly costly — plan by two rural water
districts to break away from a regional authority they say is
too expensive. The county board voted 3-1 last week in favor of
a recommendation from Supervisor Joel Anderson to support state
legislation that would require approval by a majority of all
voters within the regional water authority — rather than only
those residents of a breakaway district. … Anderson was
joined by Supervisors Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer in
supporting the recommendation, which carries no specific
authority in the California legislature. Supervisor Jim Desmond
opposed the plan.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Santa Cruz Senator John Laird’s SB 756
into law on Friday, according to the governor’s office. The
bill addresses three issues regarding the State Water Board.
First, its ability to participate in the inspection of
unlicensed cannabis cultivation sites with law enforcement;
second, its ability to inspect these sites for violation of
water rights laws (including illegal diversion and/or use); and
third, its ability to serve various types of legal documents
and provide notice to unlicensed cannabis cultivation sites.
State Senator Melissa Hurtado and Congressman John Garamendi
are sounding the alarm on the dangers of when billionaire
investors gobble up ag land. On Aug. 29, Senator Hurtado, 16th
District and chair of the State Agriculture Committee, hosted
an informational hearing at the State Capitol to discuss the
unprecedented land purchases in Solano County by Flannery
Associates LLC; and to explore possible remedies to prevent
private entities and foreign governments from acquiring
California agricultural land. … “I don’t think it’s
about building a city,” Hurtado said. “I think it’s about water
and energy.” She mentioned the state’s futures water market. In
2020, California became the first state to create a futures
market for water. With water in the futures market, this means
investors are able to trade water the same way they have things
like gold, or oil.
The Hualapai Tribe has secured thousands of acre-feet of water
a year with an act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Hualapai tribe members celebrated Wednesday, at Grand Canyon
West, decades’ worth of work to get federally protected water
rights for their tribe. President Biden signed the Hualapai
Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act last year, which was
introduced by Arizona’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Mark
Kelly. The settlement allocates a little over one billion
gallons of water per year to the tribe. … They now need more
money to help build a pipeline to get the water from their 108
acres of the Colorado River to where the tribe needs it. This
will not only help families but also help the tribe grow
economically.
For most of the state, the drought is over. The Central Valley
is receiving their full state water supply allocation and
farmers don’t need to pull water from the ground to keep their
crops from dying of thirst. But that doesn’t mean the
signs along Interstate 5 and Highway 99 grumbling about the
“Politicians Created Water Crisis” and the Valley’s man-made
dust bowl, and asking if “Growing Food Is Wasting Water?”
should be taken down. The abundance won’t last forever, and the
farmers eventually will be back where they were before record
rain and snow provided them with a bounty of life-giving water.
That could be avoided, though, if policymakers got busy
building needed water infrastructure. -Written by Kerry Jackson, a fellow with the
Center for California Reform at the Pacific Research
Institute.
Coal mining depleted areas of a critical aquifer in the Black
Mesa region of the Navajo Nation, but a federal agency didn’t
consider the losses environmentally damaging, researchers
concluded in a new study of the aquifer in northern Arizona.
The researchers detailed what they said were failures by the
federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to
hold the Peabody mining company responsible for the
environmental effects of coal mining in the Black Mesa area.
The findings of the study, conducted by the Institutes for
Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, didn’t surprise Nicole
Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, a group
working to protect Black Mesa water, among other things.
JoAnne Yazzie-Pioche calls the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo
Nation near Page home. She’s also the president of the chapter.
Throughout the years, she’s seen many changes. “I remember when
there was hardly anything here in Page,” she says. “There was
no Highway 98. It was all dirt roads.” There’s even running
water in some parts of LeChee that they get from Page and the
Colorado River. Throughout much of the Navajo Nation, however,
hauling water is still a way of life.
It’s no mystery why the tiny community of Pond was flooded out
this last spring. All you had to do was drive four miles south
to see the massive pile of debris at the Highway 43 bridge to
know all that water churning through the normally dry Poso
Creek was going bust out and go somewhere. It did. And it
headed straight for Pond. For generations, the Poso has been an
intermittent problem child – bone dry most years, then swelling
beyond its banks about every six to 10 years, flooding towns,
vital roadways and thousands of acres of farmland northwest of
Wasco.
When purchasing a parcel of land—whether a primary residence,
vacation home, industrial complex, or working ranch—the
existence or non-existence of water rights, and the
characteristics and elements of any such water rights, are a
critical consideration. The water supply can be different from
the property’s water rights. There is generally a period of
time in any real estate contract during which you can review
and understand water rights on the property. The involved water
rights inform many determinations, including: Who owns the
water rights that serve the property, and can you legally use
water at the property at all? What are the quantities (rate or
total quantity or both) in which water may be used (or stored
and used)? When can water be used under the water right—only
during irrigation season or all year?
Last week, the state Water Board heard a petition to retain
minimum water flows for the Scott River, a key Klamath
tributary. The petition was brought by the Karuk Tribe, the
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the
Environmental Law Foundation. The board eventually directed
staff to reinstate the emergency regulations for both the Scott
and Shasta rivers, a major win for the petitioners who say
flows must be maintained to protect endangered salmon. The
board also directed staff to begin work on permanent regulation
for flows in the Shasta and Scott rivers. … The petition
was filed in May and centered around an expected end to
emergency drought minimums. The lapse began on Aug. 1, with
water levels in both rivers dropping below these minimums
since.
California’s top water agency is under federal investigation
after a coalition of California tribal nations and
environmental justice groups filed a civil rights complaint
accusing it of discriminating against several Native tribes and
communities of color. The complaint, filed in December, says
the California Water Resources Control Board has failed to
protect the water quality of one of the nation’s largest
estuaries — the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and has
intentionally blocked tribal members and residents of color in
some cities from giving input on major decisions.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Our Water 101 Workshop, one of our most popular events, offered attendees the opportunity to deepen their understanding of California’s water history, laws, geography and politics.
Taught by some of the leading policy and legal experts in the state, the workshop was held as an engaging online event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23.
The Water Education Foundation’s Water 101 Workshop, one of our most popular events, offered attendees the opportunity to deepen their understanding of California’s water history, laws, geography and politics.
Taught by some of the leading policy and legal experts in the state, the one-day workshop held on Feb. 20, 2020 covered the latest on the most compelling issues in California water.
McGeorge School of Law
3327 5th Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95817
Dates are now set for two key
Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101
Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run
from March 11-13.
In addition, applications will be available by the first week of
October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive
yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water
professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our
Water Leaders program
page.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
As the Colorado River Basin becomes
drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains:
How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?
Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and
its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it
to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full
federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights
claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights
to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
One of our most popular events, our annual Water 101 Workshop
details the history, geography, legal and political facets
of water in California as well as hot topics currently facing the
state.
Taught by some of the leading policy and legal experts in the
state, the one-day workshop on Feb. 7 gave attendees a
deeper understanding of the state’s most precious natural
resources.
Optional Groundwater Tour
On Feb. 8, we jumped aboard a bus to explore groundwater, a key
resource in California. Led by Foundation staff and groundwater
experts Thomas
Harter and Carl Hauge, retired DWR chief hydrogeologist, the
tour visited cities and farms using groundwater, examined a
subsidence measuring station and provided the latest updates
on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
McGeorge School of Law
3327 5th Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95817
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
One of our most popular events, Water 101 details the history,
geography, legal and political facets of water in California
as well as hot topics currently facing the state.
Taught by some of the leading policy and legal experts in the
state, the one-day workshop gives attendees a deeper
understanding of the state’s most precious natural resource.
McGeorge School of Law
3285 5th Ave, Classroom C
Sacramento, CA 95817
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
This issue looks at how California’s severe drought has put its
water rights system under scrutiny, raising the question whether
a complete overhaul is necessary to better allocate water use.
California’s severe drought has put its water rights system under
scrutiny, raising the question whether a complete overhaul is
necessary to better allocate water use.
(Read the excerpt below from the July/August 2015 issue along
with the editor’s note. Click here
to subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)
Introduction
California’s severe drought has put its water rights system under
scrutiny, raising the question whether a complete overhaul is
necessary to better allocate water use.
Before attorneys wrangled in courtrooms over questions of water
rights, people typically took matters into their own hands. If
your neighbor up river was damming water that affected your
supply, it wasn’t unheard of that you would simply sneak up in
the middle of the night and blow up the dam.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
California’s growth has closely paralleled an evolving and
complex system of water rights.
After California became a state in 1850, it followed the practice
of Eastern states and adopted riparian rights based on
ownership of land bordering a waterway. The riparian
property owner has the right to use that water, a right that
cannot be transferred apart from the land.
Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or water rights
from one user to another, typically from an agricultural to an
urban water agency, often without investing in new infrastructure
Most exchanges involve a transfer of the resource itself, not a
transfer of the right to use the water.
Reallocating the available water on a supply-and-demand basis is
viewed by proponents as the best financial, political and
environmental means of accommodating an increase in population.
Surface water is water
found in rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds. There are a limited
number of instances in which water in a defined underground
channel is classified as surface water. There are several types
of water rights that apply to surface water.
A landowner whose property borders a river has a right to use
water from that river on his land. This is called riparian
rights.
In addition to riparian
and appropriative
water rights, there are two other types of surface water rights
in California: pueblo rights and federal reserved rights.
Prescriptive Rights are water use rights gained illicitly that
evolve into a title. Typically this occurs with rights to
chronically overdraftedgroundwater basins gained
through trespass or unauthorized use.
In California, the California Supreme Court developed the
doctrine of prescriptive rights in 1949.
Henry J. Vaux Jr. is the professor of resource economics,
emeritus, of the University of California, Berkeley, and the
University of California, Riverside.
Adjudicate -To determine rights by a
lawsuit in court.
Appropriative Right – A right based on physical
control of water and since 1914 in relation to surface water, a state-issued
permit or license for its beneficial use. Appropriative
water rights in California are divided into pre-1914 and
post-1914 rights, depending on whether they were initiated after
the December 19, 1914 effective date of the Water Commission Act
of 1913. Post-1914 rights can only be initiated by filing an
application and obtaining a permit from the state. The program is
now administered by the State Water Resources Control
Board.
Groundwater banking is a process of diverting floodwaters or
other surface water into
an aquifer where it can be
stored until it is needed later. In a twist of fate, the space
made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the
banking activities used so extensively today.
When multiple parties withdraw water from the same aquifer,
groundwater pumpers can ask the court to adjudicate, or hear
arguments for and against, to better define the rights that
various entities have to use groundwater resources. This is known
as groundwater adjudication. [See also California
water rights and Groundwater Law.]
Federal reserved rights were created when the United States
reserved land from the public domain for uses such as Indian
reservations, military bases and national parks, forests and
monuments. [See also Pueblo Rights].
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
“Let me state, clearly and finally, the Interior Department is
fully and completely committed to the policy that no water which
is needed in the Sacramento Valley will be sent out of it. There
is no intent on the part of the Bureau of Reclamation ever to
divert from the Sacramento Valley a single acre-foot of water
which might be used in the valley now or later.” – J.A. Krug,
Secretary of the Interior, Oct. 12, 1948, speech at Oroville, CA
This printed issue of Western Water examines the area
of origin laws, what they mean to those who claim their
protections and the possible implications of the Tehama Colusa
Canal Authority’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
This issue of Western Water examines the challenges facing state,
federal and tribal officials and other stakeholders as they work
to manage terminal lakes. It includes background information on
the formation of these lakes, and overviews of the water quality,
habitat and political issues surrounding these distinctive bodies
of water. Much of the information in this article originated at
the September 2004 StateManagement Issues at Terminal Water
Bodies/Closed Basins conference.
Priority: the right to precedence over others in obtaining,
buying, or doing something – Webster’s New World College
Dictionary
First in time, first in right has long served as one guiding
principle of water law in California. Simply put, this priority
system generally holds that the first person to claim water and
use it has a right superior to subsequent claims. In times of
shortage, it is the most junior of water rights holders who must
cut back use first.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
