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.
It only took 18 years, but the county is finally closing in on
an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for 15,000
acre-feet of water. … The water will be taken annually from
Folsom Reservoir or from an exchange on the American River
upstream from Folsom Reservoir.
Four years after Montebello voters rejected the idea of selling
the public water system, city officials want to take a second
stab at it, but this time they don’t need the electorate’s
approval. The city stands to get between $15.8 million and
$22.6 million from San Gabriel Valley Water Co. The difference
is based on whether Montebello leases or sells its water
rights.
The question of whether the Colorado River system is a reliable
source of water for the future was the topic of a presentation
held at the Washington County Water Conservancy District on
Thursday. … Utah is entitled to 23%, or about 1.4 million
acre feet under the compact. Utah currently uses 1 million acre
feet, Millis said. This leaves the state with 400,000 acre feet
to left to develop.
Increasing Upper Colorado River Basin water use by just 11.5
percent would double the risk that the Upper Basin fails to
have enough water to meet its obligations under the Colorado
River Compact, according to a new modeling study to be rolled
out in a big meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado, next week.
If the decommissioning goes through as planned (the latest
timetable aims for a drawdown sometime in 2021) it will be the
largest dam removal project in U.S. history, with major
implications for environmental restoration, the salmon fishery,
agriculture and local tribes. But a recent Federal Appeals
Court decision is having repercussions that extend far beyond
the Klamath River Basin.
Championed by state and local water planners and decried by
conservation groups, the Lake Powell Pipeline project continues
to be a focal point for discussion among Southern Utah
residents. As to the current status of the pipeline project, a
public comment period connected to a permitting process
overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – more
commonly known as FERC – recently concluded.
An attempt to restore the population of endangered Southern
California steelhead trout living in the Santa Ynez River is
being opposed by some jurisdictions that rely on the river and
Cachuma Lake for their water supply.
In a first-of-its-kind move, the Fox Canyon Groundwater
Management Agency agreed to pay up to $3 million to help
recharge overstressed groundwater resources in Ventura County.
The money will buy roughly 15,000 acre-feet of water, which
started spilling out of Santa Felicia Dam at Lake Piru on
Monday.
The largest water agency in Silicon Valley has been secretly
negotiating to purchase a sprawling cattle ranch in Merced
County that sits atop billions of gallons of groundwater, a
move that could create a promising new water source — or spark
a political battle between the Bay Area and Central Valley
farmers.
It’s hard to respond effectively to a crisis when you don’t
have clearly defined priorities. This is true for sudden-onset
crises, like floods and wildfires, and also for slow-onset
crises, like droughts.
After 68 years of litigation and more than a half-century of
settlement talks, a dispute between the water district that
serves Fallbrook and Camp Pendleton has officially ended. The
agreement settles a lawsuit filed in 1951 and lays out how the
Fallbrook Public Utility District and Marine Corps Base Camp
Pendleton will share water rights to the Santa Margarita River.
In the ceaseless conflict over how to use the state’s available
water — and maybe then some — a varied group of water users and
lawmakers sang a refrain older than Nevada: “Everyone is going
to court in the end.” … The ghosts of litigation — past,
present and future — loomed over the Thursday Senate Natural
Resources Committee hearing that stretched until 8 p.m. and
offered insight into why it’s so difficult to update Nevada
water law.
Oregon Water Resources Department is in the process of
validating a call on Upper Klamath Lake tributaries, including
the Wood River, filed by senior water right holders — the
Klamath Tribes — on April 18. … Water users that irrigate can
call the watermaster’s office if they believe someone with a
junior water right to theirs is irrigating with water that
should be coming to them.
What happens when there is not enough surface water to go
around in a watershed? California water rights law says that
certain water users must curtail their water diversions — in
other words, reduce the amount of water they divert or stop
diverting water altogether. … But following water right
priorities is not always straightforward, and other aspects of
state and federal law complicate the picture …
With the administration’s leadership, representatives of
farmers, cities and conservation groups are having productive
negotiations on a complex package of actions that would
increase river flows and improve fish habitats, collectively
called a “voluntary agreement.” A possible final agreement is
months away, but we are making progress.
To get access to Colorado River water, the tribe is hoping its
federal water settlement will finally become law. Earlier this
month, Arizona’s congressional delegation sponsored another
settlement bill after similar efforts in 2017 and 2016. If a
water rights settlement became law, the Hualapai Tribe would
get 4,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water each year.
In Ukiah Thursday, at least two dozen people who depend on the
Potter Valley Project for their farming operations gathered at
the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds to hear an update on the
facility’s future. “New information to come shortly, and a lot
of work still to do,” said Janet Pauli, chairwoman of the
Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, a Joint
Powers Authority that is exploring the possibility of acquiring
the facility that Pacific Gas and Electric owns, but has
essentially abandoned.
For rural communities in the central coast region of
California, the name “Harvard” does not connote excellence. For
these communities, where water is scarce and becoming scarcer,
it evokes greed and exploitation. As California takes its first
steps to regulate groundwater in the midst of a worsening water
crisis, Harvard’s endowment fund is investing millions into
vineyards that pump inordinate amounts of water from
California’s critically overdrafted groundwater basins.
In the past several years, Los Angeles-based Renewable
Resources Group has helped sell 33,000 acres of land to
California’s most powerful water agency, the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California. Documents obtained by Voice of
San Diego raise fresh questions about those deals. Now,
Renewable may be working on another deal that could rearrange
the distribution of water in California forever.
A multi-million dollar lawsuit filed against Calistoga over
water rights has been dismissed on appeal. The California Court
of Appeal on April 29 rejected Debbie R. O’Gorman’s $10 million
lawsuit against the city,
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California issued a decision … finding that the
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians lacked standing to seek
adjudication of its claim to quantification of its reserved
groundwater right and its claim regarding groundwater quality.
At first blush, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest action on water
seems fanciful and naive. But it has logic and conceivably
could work. Newsom wants to reexamine practically everything
the state has been working on — meaning what former Gov. Jerry
Brown was doing — and piece together a grand plan for
California’s future that can draw the support of longtime water
warriors.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered key state agencies to
develop a blueprint for meeting California’s 21st-century water
needs in the face of climate change.The executive order
includes few details and doesn’t appear to set a dramatic new
water course for the state. Rather, it reaffirms Newsom’s
intentions to downsize the controversial twin tunnels project
in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, use voluntary agreements
to meet new river flow requirements and provide clean drinking
water to impoverished communities.
In Riverside County, right along the Santa Ana River, local
leaders and community members came together to commemorate 50
years of peace along the River. Nearly 100 people celebrated
two 1969 court judgments for the water rights of the Santa Ana
River that are still in place.
Importantly for the water rights community, SB 454 will reduce
the financial burden on the existing Water Rights Fund caused
by the establishment of the Hearings Office. As the laws and
budget are currently structured, the Water Rights Fund is the
primary source of financial support for the Hearings Office.
The Water Rights Fund is supported by fees paid by water rights
holders, some of whom might never utilize the Hearings Office.
A federal official is attempting to “obstruct” the flow of
water to restore habitat at Walker Lake, the conservancy
responsible for administering federal restoration funds alleged
in District Court last week. After years of litigation, lawyers
for the Walker Basin Conservancy said that “at some point, the
court must put a stop to the federal water master’s
obstruction.” The receding desert lake outside of Hawthorne is
fed by the Walker River, which rises in California and snakes
through Western Nevada.
The petition, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court,
alleges violations of the California Environmental Quality
Act by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
and names the Coachella Valley, Palo Verde and
Needles water districts as well. It asks the court to
suspend the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan until a
thorough environmental analysis has been completed.
Farmers, by trade, are experts in sustainability and by
extension common sense. Growers along with 1.5 million Northern
San Joaquin Valley residents could end up on the receiving end
of an economic Armageddon perpetuated by the state Department
of Water Resources on behalf of the threatened Chinook salmon.
Zig-zagging around us, among the trees, is a sprawling network
of irrigation ditches. It’s almost laid out like a farm.
Instead of the food crops grown all around this site,
Schlatter’s team grows trees and willows, prime habitat for
birds, coyotes, frogs and other wildlife. The whole site only
receives water a couple times a year.
“Flood-MAR” is a resource management strategy that uses flood
water for managed aquifer recharge (MAR) on agricultural lands,
working landscapes, and managed natural landscapes. At the
March meeting of the California Water Commission, a panel
discussed Flood MAR with a focus on using agricultural lands
for groundwater recharge.
An international team of researchers has carried out the first
systematic global review of water reallocation from rural to
urban regions—the practice of transferring water from rural
areas to cities to meet demand from growing urban populations.
… The study, published in Environmental Research Letters,
found North America and Asia are hotspots for rural-to-urban
water reallocation,
Assemblymember Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) ripped the State Water
Resources Control Board on Tuesday for arguing that the harm
caused by the Bay-Delta Plan to the drinking water of
disadvantaged communities is not “significant”. Gray’s comments
came as his legislation, Assembly Bill 637, cleared the
Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee
with bipartisan support.
Cadiz says that the aquifer refills at the rate of 32,000 acre
feet per year (not 50,000); but, renowned scientists working
with the United States Geological Survey and the National Park
Service say the refill rate is more like 2,000 to 10,000 acre
feet per year — at least 40,000 acre feet per year less than
the Cadiz plan. The math just doesn’t add up.
Venture 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.
Officials met in Imperial Beach Friday to discuss the sewage
pollution that continues to plague South Bay shorelines —
shuttering beaches more than 100 days every year. The event was
billed as an “inaugural dialogue,” which in the future will
include a host of other binational issues, including climate
change and commerce.
Our predecessors settled in a valley bordered by mountains that
increase the rainfall and help store water as melted snow
underground. They also experienced drought and, in response,
they thoughtfully set aside thousands of acres of land needed
to capture and replenish the primary source of the water they
needed, underground.
Crystal Geyser initially announced its intention to open the
facility to bottle fruit juices with much fanfare in 2013.
However, legal challenges have so far foiled its plans. The
Winnemem Wintu Tribe and WATER (We Advocate Thorough
Environmental Review) have filed two lawsuits to prevent the
project, both of which are moving through the court system.
Political leaders from the valley are urging the Environmental
Protection Agency to closely scrutinize new water quality
standards proposed for the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. …
“The State Water Resources Control Board’s proposal to the EPA
misses the mark,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, who joined
almost a dozen congressmen, including conservatives Kevin
McCarthy and Tom McClintock, in sending a letter to the EPA.
On the first morning of a water conference in downtown Phoenix
on Friday, an academic expert spoke of aridification in the
Colorado River basin due to the ill effects of humans burning
fossil fuels. After dinner, a writer of vivid predictive
fiction spoke about his book “The Water Knife,” which describes
Phoenix in a dusty and water-starved river basin, in the
not-so-distant future.
The California State Water Resources Control Board adopted a
complex policy essentially treating cannabis as a crop inferior
to other traditional agricultural crops from a water rights
perspective. Other states have not made such a strong policy
choice yet, but will certainly be faced with how to address
this influx of permit applications, and will feel pressure from
farmers of traditional crops, who do not always welcome
cannabis growers with open arms.
When the State Water Resources Control Board voted in December
to adopt the Bay-Delta Plan, its members ignored the direction
of former Governor Brown and current Governor Newsom to pursue
voluntary agreements with our irrigation districts. Many saw
this as an act of defiance by former Chair Felicia Marcus, the
executive director, and many of the activist staff.
This post provides an overview of our recommendations for
actions the State Water Resources Control Board can take
before, during, and after droughts to make water rights
administration and oversight more timely, fair, and effective.
… Here are five actions the Board can take to build on past
gains and its institutional knowledge from past drought
experiences:
Felicia Marcus, who stepped down as Chair of the State Water
Resources Control Board early this year, joins us to discuss
California’s water challenges, what the state learned from the
recent drought and the future of its water wars.
Now that the federal government has filed its own lawsuits
against an unimpaired-flows plan for San Joaquin River
tributaries, farmers and other parties to the lawsuits wait to
learn where they will be heard–and prepare for a lengthy court
battle. California Farm Bureau Federation … filed its own
lawsuit against the unimpaired-flows plan in February…
Modern interpretations of the public trust are said to have
originated from a sixth-century Roman law that asserted, “[b]y
the law of nature these things are common to mankind — the air,
running water, the sea and consequently the shores of the sea.”
Antioch’s plan to build a long-awaited brackish desalination
plant got a major boost this week when the City Council
officially accepted a $10 million state grant that will pay
toward design and construction. The city’s grant was one of
three statewide to be awarded in March 2018 from the Department
of Water Resources for desalination projects under Proposition
1…
The Millview County Water District will receive a $3 million
loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development
program to help secure access to its wells. According to the
USDA, the money will be used to help the water district
“purchase property to gain access to its water source.
Currently, Millview does not own the water rights to the four
well sites, making it difficult to service the wells if there
are any issues with them, such as contamination.”
Chinook spawned here historically, but in 1957 Putah Creek was
dammed near Winters to divert water for Solano County. After
that, hardly any salmon made their way up the creek. Then a
lawsuit in the 1990s — and resulting restoration project —
finally gave the fish what they needed to return after all
these years.
South Coast agencies purchased more than 27,000 acre-feet of
supplemental water during four drought years to make up for
lowered allocations from Lake Cachuma and the State Water
Project, and for most of those deals, payback includes water in
addition to money. Agencies’ so-called “water debt” means that
when the city of Santa Barbara purchased from the Mojave Water
Agency last year, for example, it was committing to paying back
1 acre-foot of water for every 4 acre-feet it purchased.
Past droughts have stress-tested California’s water management
institutions, and some of the vulnerabilities they revealed
still linger today. Given that climate change is expected to
increase the frequency and intensity of future droughts,
recognizing and addressing institutional vulnerabilities is
critical.
Ventura has released reports detailing the environmental
impacts of two sizable projects expected to increase the city’s
water supply and reliability… One involves tapping into the
city’s long-held investment into state water. The other project
would capture effluent from Ventura’s wastewater treatment
plant, treat it and turn it into drinking water.
Lawmakers in Colorado want the U.S. state to study the
potential of blockchain technology in water rights management.
Republican senator Jack Tate, along with representatives Jeni
James Arndt (Democratic) and Marc Catlin (Republican), filed
senate bill 184 on Tuesday, proposing that the Colorado Water
Institute should be granted authority to study how blockchain
technology can help improve its operations.
The real-world implications of Gov. Newsom’s rejection of the
twin tunnels project became more apparent last week as the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation requested and were granted a 60-day stay of
hearings with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).
A trial date has been set for Apple Valley’s eminent domain
lawsuit against Liberty Utilities, a case that will determine
whether the town will win the right to take the company’s water
system. … Liberty filed its CEQA suit a month after the Town
Council voted to take the company’s water system by eminent
domain. In court documents, the company alleged an “incomplete
and misleading” environmental impact report prepared for
acquisition.
At the March 29th Santa Ana River Watershed Conference in
Orange County, the PPIC’s Ellen Hanak will put the
top managers of the watershed’s five major water districts
on the hot seat to uncover the region’s latest innovations and
find out what the next generation of integrated water
management planning looks like.
Although ending groundwater overdraft will bring long-term
benefits, it entails near-term costs. We find that only about a
quarter of the Valley’s groundwater deficit can be filled with
new supplies at prices farmers can afford. The rest must come
from managing demand. We estimate that ending the overdraft
will require taking at least 500,000 acres of irrigated
cropland out of production.
A letter from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein could have helped
lead to Felicia Marcus’s ouster as State Water Resources
Control Board chair last week. Surprised? Don’t be: The
moderate Democratic senator has a long alliance with Central
Valley ag.
Too often, entrenched conflicts that pit water user against
water user block efforts to secure a sustainable, equitable,
and democratic water future in California. Striking a balance
involves art and science, compassion and flexibility, and
adherence to science and the law. Felicia Marcus is a public
servant unknown to many Californians. But as she concludes her
tenure as chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, we
owe her a debt of gratitude for consistently reaching for that
balance.
Felicia Marcus, whose push for larger river flows angered
farmers and community leaders in the Northern San Joaquin
Valley, won’t continue as chairwoman of the State Water
Resources Control Board. Gov. Gavin Newsom named Joaquin
Esquivel as chairman of the powerful water regulatory board.
… Laurel Firestone, co-founder of the Community Water
Center, was appointed as the replacement for Marcus.
… Firestone has been an advocate for addressing wells
contaminated with nitrates.
Details of the Sacramento River portion of the SWRCB’s plan are
still preliminary, but we expect the required water releases to
be higher for the Sacramento River, and its tributaries, than
they are for the San Joaquin River. SWRCB staff is currently
recommending that between 45 and 65 percent of the natural
runoff of northern California rivers be allowed to flow to the
ocean unimpeded.
Agricultural and environmental leaders spoke at the Water
Market Exchange Symposium in the Satellite Student Union on
Jan. 24 to share their perspectives on a water market exchange
program. The symposium featured speakers from water agencies,
environmental interests, disadvantaged community interests and
water market administrators.
“The judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our
property under the Constitution,” said U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Charles Evans Hughes in Elimra, New York in 1907. That
quote exemplifies the reason that five irrigation districts on
tributaries to the San Joaquin River as well as the city of San
Francisco filed lawsuits recently against the State Water
Resources Control Board. They are defending their water
rights.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman today named
Ernest A. Conant director of the Mid-Pacific Region. Conant has
nearly 40 years of water law experience and previously served
as senior partner of Young Wooldridge, LLP.
The State Water Resources Control Board has proposed flow
requirements for rivers that feed the Delta based on a
percentage of ‘unimpaired flows… If approved, this
‘unimpaired flows’ approach would have significant impacts on
farms, communities throughout California and the environment.
We join many other water agencies in our belief that
alternative measures …
Far less settled is how Newsom will fill his administration’s
most important positions regarding state water policy. One of
Newsom’s key tests confronts him immediate: State Water
Resources Control Board Chair Felicia Marcus’ term expires this
week.
After more than three years, 104 days of testimony, and over
twenty-four thousand pages of hearing transcripts, the hearing
before the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) on
the proposal to construct two tunnels to convey water under the
Delta (aka California WaterFix) is almost completed.
Probably, that is: there could be more if the project changes
again to a degree that requires additional testimony and/or
environmental review.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California …
began what is being referred to as “defensive withdrawals” from
Lake Mead. Remember, Lake Mead is severely low, and if L.A.
takes all of the water they’ve been allotted, it will trigger
emergency supply restrictions for everyone else. So, why are
they doing this with the agreement deadline so close? The Show
turned to Debra Kahn who covers California environmental policy
and broke the story for Politico Pro.
Wells are going dry and there are few long-term solutions
available — a common stopgap has been to drill deeper wells.
This is exactly what happened in California’s Central Valley.
The recent drought there prompted drilling of deeper and deeper
water wells to support irrigated agriculture. Groundwater
supplies around the world are being threatened by excessive
pumping, but drilling deeper wells is not a long-term solution.
A better solution is to manage water use and avoid excessive
declines in groundwater levels.
In an attempt to block the state’s plan to divert more water
toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and away from the
Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has filed a
lawsuit arguing the project could significantly reduce the
local water supply. If the plan advances, the water district
might have to spend millions of dollars to obtain alternate
water supplies and pull up more groundwater.
The State Water Resources Control Board proved back on Dec. 12
that it wasn’t listening to a single thing anyone from our
region was saying. By voting to impose draconian and
scientifically unjustifiable water restrictions on our region,
four of the five board members tuned out dozens of scientists,
water professionals and people who live near the rivers.
The city of San Francisco is not standing down in California’s
latest water war, joining a lawsuit against the state on
Thursday to stop it from directing more of the Sierra Nevada’s
cool, crisp flows to fish instead of people.
One of the Water Education Foundation’s most popular
events, Water 101 offers a once-a-year opportunity for anyone
new to California water issues or newly elected to a water
district board – and anyone who wants a refresher — to
gain a deeper understanding of the state’s most precious
natural resource. It will be held Feb. 7 at McGeorge School of
Law in Sacramento.
The U.S. Interior Department is facing three lawsuits filed by
three environmental groups who allege its plans for the
200,000-acre Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex
along the Oregon-California border violates several federal
laws. A fourth complaint from six farms and agricultural
groups alleges the agency has unlawfully exceeded its authority
by restricting leases of refuge land for agricultural purposes.
As his term as governor drew to a close, Jerry Brown brokered a
historic agreement among farms and cities to surrender billions
of gallons of water to help ailing fish. He also made two big
water deals with the Trump administration. It added up to
a dizzying display of deal-making. Yet as Gavin Newsom takes
over as governor, the state of water in California seems as
unsettled as ever.
An arbiter has sided with five local tribes in a dispute over
what San Diego County water officials argued was a request that
left them with an unexpected $2.1 million budget deficit after
the tribes won back lost water rights. The dispute arose after
the federal government restored water rights to the San Luis
Rey Indian Water Authority, which represents the tribes.
It has been called speculative, foolhardy and overly expensive,
but Aaron Million’s plan to pump water from the Utah-Wyoming
border to Colorado’s Front Range just won’t dry
up. Now seeking water rights from the Green
River in Utah for a new version of his plan, Million thinks he
has fashioned a winning proposal to feed Colorado’s thirsty,
growing population.
Everyone who diverts water is required to report to the State
Water Board the amount they used. But Louis and Darcy Chacon
reported an amount that just didn’t make sense. The Chacons
reported they used more than 1 trillion acre-feet of water
annually from 2009 to 2013, more than is available on the
entire planet.
Prompted by the collapse of fish populations, the State Water
Resources Control Board is trying to prevent humans from
totally drying up these rivers each year. The regulators’
lodestar for how much water the rivers need is the amount of
water a Chinook salmon needs to migrate.
The California State Water Resources Control Board approved a
$10,000 settlement last month after two property owners were
accused of deliberately making years’ worth of false water
diversion reports.
Several dozen Northern California and Lane County residents
picketed outside Roseburg Forest Products’ Springfield
headquarters Tuesday, protesting what they call a water grab
and frivolous lawsuit by the wood products company. About
50 people, some from the town of Weed, Calif., held signs …
late Tuesday morning, objecting to what Roseburg Forest
Products considers its water rights to the Beaughan Springs,
which provides the main source of drinking water for Weed.
This 2-day, 1-night tour offers 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.
A group of powerful Imperial Valley farmers and their
irrigation district need to work together for the benefit of
the region, according to Superior Court Judge L. Brooks
Anderholt. He warned a fight between the two sides over rights
to Colorado River water and the need to address a prolonged
drought across the Southwest could spur action by Congress, or
end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
A fierce local battle over water rights unfolding in a small
Southern California courtroom Wednesday could threaten federal
plans to replenish rapidly dwindling Colorado River water
supplies. A third-generation farmer is seeking an injunction to
block the Imperial Irrigation District from signing on to the
seven-state compact. The hearing comes a day-and-a-half after
the longtime general manager for the district, Kevin Kelley,
announced he will retire at year’s end, though he could stay on
as a consultant.
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.
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.
A public agency and a powerful farmer are gearing up for a
high-stakes court battle to determine who owns the largest
share of Colorado River water in the
West, complicating the river’s future as seven western
states scramble to avoid severe water shortages. There’s a
long history of fighting over water in California’s Imperial
Valley, which has a legal right to more than 1 trillion
gallons of Colorado River water each
year — twice as much as the rest
of California, and as much as Arizona and
Nevada combined.
Lawmakers and water developers, citing well-founded concerns
about an increasingly arid future, are considering multiple
high-priced water development projects and a sweeping water law
rewrite. But while the future of Wyoming water is debated in
the public square, public and private rights holders are
quietly transferring billions of gallons of it to industry in
exchange for cash. The practice is legal, lucrative and without
direct financial benefit to the state.
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.
Researchers at the University of California recently
highlighted a flaw in state law that may prohibit diverting
streamflow to recharge groundwater. The problem is that
groundwater recharge by itself is not considered a “beneficial
use” under state law, and meeting that definition is a
requirement to obtain a permit to divert water. Officials at
the State Water Resources Control Board, which oversees water
rights, say the reality is not so clear-cut.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape as we 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. Tour
participants will get 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
resoures.
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
Rep. Jeff Denham, one of the nation’s most vulnerable
Republicans, is trying desperately to shut down a state water
plan that’s widely disliked in his district. But nothing has
worked so far. One thing could: Yet another lawsuit between the
Department of Justice and the state of California over the
issue.
Sites Reservoir, the largest new water storage proposal in
California, recently won a commitment of $816 million in state
funds to help with construction. It promises to deliver enough
water every year, on average, to serve 1 million homes. But
regulatory realities looming in the background may mean the
project has substantially less water at its disposal.
It’s rare that Westlands Water District and San Francisco face
identical problems, but plans to keep more water flowing in the
San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers – leaving less for irrigators
and cities – is bringing the two together. … The drama
started in July when the State Water Resources Control
Board issued a new water plan for the lower San
Joaquin River recommending that 30 to 50 percent of the water
— 40 percent is the target — would stay in the river as
“unimpaired flows.”
Hundreds of California farmers rallied at the Capitol on Monday
to protest state water officials’ proposal to increase water
flows in a major California river, a move state and federal
politicians called an overreach of power that would mean less
water for farms in the Central Valley. … Environmentalists
and fishermen offered a different take on the other side of the
Capitol to a much smaller audience.
A proposed housing development that opponents say will dry out
one of the Southwest’s only free-flowing rivers can take shape
after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the
developer has proved it has sufficient long-term water supply.
More than two decades after Los Angeles was forced to cut water
diversions to protect California’s natural resources, the state
is poised to impose similar restrictions on San Francisco and
some of the Central Valley’s oldest irrigation districts. The
proposal represents a dramatic new front in one of California’s
most enduring water fights: the battle over the pastoral delta
that is part of the West Coast’s largest estuary and also an
important source of water for much of the state.
A final draft plan for the San Joaquin River system has been
released by state water regulators. … But Friday the State
Water Board also released a “framework” for a similar plan
being prepared for the Sacramento River watershed, which would
see even larger reductions of diversions in the north valley.
California water officials on Friday released a plan to
increase flows through a major central California river, an
effort that would save salmon and other fish but deliver less
water to farmers in the state’s agricultural heartland.
State regulators proposed sweeping changes in the allocation of
California’s water Friday, leaving more water in Northern
California’s major rivers to help ailing fish populations — and
giving less to farming and human consumption.
The U.S. Forest Service has granted Nestle a new three-year
permit to continue operating its bottled water pipeline in the
San Bernardino National Forest. The agency announced the
decision Wednesday, saying the permit has been offered to the
company “with measures to improve the watershed’s health” along
Strawberry Creek.
U.S. officials offered Nestle, the maker of Arrowhead bottled
water, a three-year permit on Wednesday to keep taking millions
of gallons of water from a national forest in Southern
California — but with new restrictions designed to keep a creek
flowing for other uses.
Splitting California into three new states would scramble
nearly every segment of government that touches residents’
lives, from taxes to Medi-Cal to driver’s licenses. … But of
all the gargantuan tasks facing Californians should they choose
to divide themselves by three — a proposal that has qualified
for the November ballot — none is arguably more daunting than
carving up the state’s water supply.
Leaders of the Blackfeet Nation and U.S. Interior Department on
Tuesday put into effect a $471 million settlement of water
rights claims that was decades in the making for the
northwestern Montana American Indian tribe.
A judge denied a request Thursday by a federal water management
agency for more time to evaluate the environmental impacts of
California’s water transfer program that allows some water
rights holders to sell water to parched farms in the southern
part of the state.
Tens of thousands of people on the Navajo Nation lack running
water in their homes. But that could change in the coming
years, as the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project goes into
effect. It’s expected to deliver water to the reservation and
nearby areas by 2024, as part of a Navajo Nation water rights
settlement with New Mexico, confirmed by Congress in 2009.
It’s been a tumultuous year for the Imperial Irrigation
District. On the energy side, IID canceled tens of
millions of dollars in contracts following allegations of
financial conflicts of interest against the consultant ZGlobal
Inc. On the water side, the publicly owned utility was jolted
by a court ruling that could make it more difficult to
limit the use of Colorado River water by Imperial Valley
farmers.
With the release of California’s budget trailer bill came
proposed new legislation on Friday that would add an
Administrative Hearing Office within the State Water Resources
Control Board. If passed, the newly formed Administrative
Hearing Office would provide a neutral, fair and efficient
forum for adjudications.
Fearsome gusts of desert wind routinely kicked up swirling
clouds of choking dust over Owens Lake on the east side of the
Sierra Nevada after 1913, when its treasured snowmelt and
spring water was first diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
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
We 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.
A lawsuit pitting Texas against New Mexico and Colorado over
access to water from the Rio Grande must be sent back to an
arbitrator, also known as a special master, to resolve the
dispute, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
On February 20, California’s State Water Resources Control
Board postponed a decision on the adoption of new statewide
regulations meant to curb wasteful water practices. The
regulations would make permanent some rules California enacted
temporarily during the recent drought, which ended
last year.
Water districts in northern New Mexico sought to disqualify a
state judge Tuesday and overturn a major settlement with the
Navajo Nation in a simmering dispute about rights to water from
the San Juan River.
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
With nearly half the state back in drought, California’s water
regulator held a contentious hearing in Sacramento on Tuesday
on whether to make permanent the temporary water bans enacted
by Governor Jerry Brown during the 2014-2017 drought. The board
announced it will revisit the proposed measures in March while
it makes some minor revisions to the draft proposals.
After one year of torrential respite, drought may have returned
to California, and with it, a renewal of the state’s perpetual
conflict over water management. State and federal water systems
have told farmers not to expect more than a fifth of their
paper allocations, the state Water Resources Control Board is
weighing a new regime of mandatory conservation, and supporters
of more reservoirs are complaining about the glacial pace of
spending $2.7 billion set aside in a water bond for more
storage.
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.
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.
With the comment period now over, state officials have begun
their review of 30 separate filings in response to an
investigation of Nestlé’s withdrawal of millions of gallons
annually from springs in the San Bernardino National Forest for
its Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water brand of bottled
water.
Thousands of water-right holders who were told to cease
diversions during the last drought were deprived of due
process, a judge found Wednesday, raising questions about how
the state will handle future shortages. … At the center
of the legal dispute was the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District
near Tracy.
When the Blackfeet Nation of Montana last year approved a water
rights compact with the federal government that had taken more
than three decades to negotiate, it was only the beginning. The
deal quantifies the tribe’s water rights for the first time and
provides for more than $470 million in state and federal
funding for water projects and related initiatives, but
securing that money will involve further negotiations that are
likely to be slow going.
A proposal to make California’s drought-era water restrictions
permanent could allow the state to chip away at long-held water
rights in an unprecedented power grab, representatives from
water districts and other users told regulators Tuesday.
Nestlé is disputing the findings of an investigation by
California water regulators, arguing the company is entitled to
keep piping water out of the San Bernardino National
Forest — even more water than it has been bottling
and selling in the past few years.
California officials tried to smooth the way for the Delta
tunnels project by slicing it in half. Instead they’re facing
more pushback and the possibility of additional delays. One day
after Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration downsized the
Delta tunnels project, a host of project opponents tried
Thursday to halt a state regulatory hearing that’s crucial to
getting it built.
Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court heard
arguments in a case pitting Texas against New Mexico over water
rights along the Rio Grande. The Lone Star State initially
filed suit against its partner in the Rio Grande Compact in
2013, charging project mismanagement and illegal use of water
from the river and its connected groundwater in a roughly
130-mile stretch as the river leaves New Mexico and
enters Texas.
The deadline for filing comments about the State Water
Resources Control Board’s controversial ‘Report of
Investigation’ for Nestlé’s water mining in the San Bernardino
Mountains has been extended to Feb. 9, from Thursday, Jan. 25,
allowing environmental groups, individuals and Nestlé more time
to perfect arguments in an effort to shape the direction of the
final report.
A lengthy Delta tunnels hearing that was set to begin Thursday
instead has been delayed for two weeks as state officials
consider claims that illegal meetings took place between
tunnels proponents and the agency that is supposed to
independently judge the project.
A state agency that is supposed to independently judge the
merits of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Delta tunnels has
simultaneously been holding meetings illegally with project
proponents, critics allege in a pair of motions filed this
week. The State Water Resources Control Board on Thursday is
scheduled to resume lengthy public hearings that could result
in a permit that would allow the $17 billion project to move
forward.
California officials have moved closer to scaling back the
troubled Delta tunnels project, officially notifying potential
construction contractors that they’re considering limiting the
project to one tunnel.
Nestle, which sells Arrowhead bottled water, may have to stop
taking millions of gallons of water from Southern California’s
San Bernardino National Forest because state regulators
concluded it lacks valid permits. The State Water Resources
Control Board notified the company on Wednesday that an
investigation concluded it doesn’t have proper rights to about
three-quarters of the water it withdraws for bottling.
California water regulators told Nestlé that the company
doesn’t appear to have valid water rights for all of the water
it’s been piping out of the San Bernardino National Forest and
selling as bottled water. Regulators at the State Water
Resources Control Board notified Nestlé of their findings
following a 20-month investigation, recommending the company
limit its use of water from the namesake source of
Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water unless it can show it has
valid rights for all of the water it’s been taking.
We 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.
After 66 years of litigation and more than 50 years of
settlement talks, the longest-running federal civil case in San
Diego has ended. The Fallbrook Public Utility District board of
directors voted unanimously Monday to end a water dispute with
the U.S. government and Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base over
rights to water that flows from the Santa Margarita River.
A landmark agreement on the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive
Use project between the Fallbrook Public Utility District and
Camp Pendleton Marine Base promises to be signed Dec. 11, after
66 years of litigation in the U.S. courts and could be good
news for the 10-year-old water rights settlement case that is
hindering development along state Route 371 in the Valley.
On Monday, November 27, the United States Supreme Court let
stand a California federal appellate court decision that could
chart a new course for Native American tribal groundwater
rights. In the case, Agua Caliente Band v. Coachella
Valley Water District, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had ruled on March 7 that the
tribe’s water rights include an aquifer that lies beneath the
Palm Springs-based tribe’s 31,500-acre reservation.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear
an appeal by water agencies in the Agua Caliente Band of
Cahuilla Indians’ landmark lawsuit asserting rights to
groundwater beneath the tribe’s reservation.
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.
John T. Racanelli, a retired California justice whose
pioneering opinions had a profound impact on disability rights
and the environment, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan.
… His most ground-breaking ruling, eponymously known as the
Racanelli decision, came in 1986, which established for
the first time that the government must protect not just the
water rights of farmers and municipalities but also the needs
of fish and wildlife.
As California continues an epic regulatory effort to reallocate
water supplies for salmon habitat, an equally big question
looms over the process: How much water do salmon and other
native fish really need? The question is at the core of a
process led by the State Water Resources Control Board to take
water from existing human uses – both agriculture and urban –
and rededicate it to instream environmental flows in the San
Joaquin River, the state’s second-largest river.
Dam builders from President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration
wanted to bring water to the parched eastern half of the San
Joaquin Valley, but first they had to deal with a cluster of
landowners whose ancestors had been there since the 1800s. The
deal they cut in 1939 paved the way for much of the Central
Valley Project, an engineering marvel that helped turn the
Valley into one of the world’s most productive farming regions.
An Oregon judge has rejected claims by several Klamath Basin
irrigators that state regulators wrongly shut down their
groundwater wells based on faulty scientific analysis.
The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will hear
an appeal from water agencies and rule in the precedent-setting
legal fight over whether the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians holds rights to groundwater in the California desert.
A century ago, agents from Los Angeles converged on the Owens
Valley on a secret mission. They figured out who owned water
rights in the lush valley and began quietly purchasing land,
posing as ranchers and farmers.
The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on whether Indian tribes
hold special rights to the groundwater beneath their
reservations, and the court will now have a chance to settle
the question in a case that could redraw the lines in water
disputes across the country.
The controversial water diversion tunnels proposed in
California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta may be the biggest
waterworks up for review anywhere in the world. And this $17
billion project requires a variety of permits and approvals
before construction can begin. … The State Water
Resources Control Board is the agency charged with issuing the
new diversion permit – essentially a new water right.
There was no electricity when Vickie Buchanan’s family came to
Diamond Valley in 1958. Nor were there many crops. But there
was water, and as early settlers, Vickie’s parents were given
priority access under a rule fundamental to Western water law:
“first in time, first in right.” A steady flow of farmers
followed, planting alfalfa and timothy hay grass in the
high-desert soil of the central Nevada valley.
In 2015, a Nevada County man believed to be running a marijuana
cultivation site hauled a 500-gallon tank into Yuba County and
filled it by diverting water from the Yuba River, which is not
illegal under current law. Yuba County supervisors and the
district attorney recently signed a letter of support for a
bill that would amend the Water Code to address that type of
situation.
The Coachella Valley’s largest water agencies will appeal to
the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the question of whether the
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has a federally
established right to groundwater beneath the tribe’s
reservation. … The case is likely to set an important
precedent for tribes across the country.
A crucial deadline passed quietly on January 1 that has big
repercussions for the future of California’s water. It was
the first of several deadlines that enforce new requirements
for water diverters to precisely measure and report the amount
of water they take from the state’s streams. Some 12,000 people
and businesses that hold state water rights, large and small,
are bound by the new rules.
The Agua Caliente tribe in Palm Springs argues it has a right
to groundwater. Stanford law professor Barton H. “Buzz”
Thompson explains how a federal court could soon resolve
century-old uncertainties around the issue.
If there is a positive outcome of five years of drought in
California, it’s the lessons learned about how to manage water
during a shortage in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. On the
up-side, farmers got creative to cut back their water
diversions by 32 percent through a volunteer program. On the
learning-curve side, complex water rights confound who gets
water during shortage.
Lawyers for the Coachella Valley’s largest water districts and
the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians presented their
arguments to a federal appeals court in a water rights case
that could set a precedent for tribes across the country.
For those with a financial stake in water, drought can mean
boom or bust, depending on the investment. And even without a
specific market to trade water, there are numerous ways to
invest in it – from buying land with water rights to stocks in
water-dependent companies to municipal bonds. Take Michael
Burry, for instance, the hedge fund manager featured in the
book and movie “The Big Short” who outsmarted the subprime
housing market crash.
The Coachella Valley Water District has for decades been using
a series of oblong ponds carved into the desert near the base
of Mt. San Jacinto to capture imported water from the Colorado
River. … Now CVWD is applying to the federal Bureau of Land
Management for a new permit, and the application could face
resistance from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians as
the tribe fights the district in federal court in a landmark
case over water rights.
Sometime in the next few months, lawyers for the state of
Mississippi will stand before a U.S. Supreme Court-appointed
legal expert, clear their throats, and argue that Tennessee, a
neighbor, is stealing water. … It is the first time the
Supreme Court has considered a lawsuit that involves the use
and distribution of groundwater reserves that lie beneath
multiple state boundaries.
If whiskey is for drinking and water is for
fighting over, five years of drought have transformed
California’s civil courts into well-worn legal boxing rings. As
climate change threatens the state’s long-term water future,
local water officials and legal experts say water rights have
morphed into priceless bounty worth protecting by any means
necessary.
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.
Michael George has called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
“highly important, highly complex, highly compromised.” George
serves as Delta watermaster, a position created as part of the
Delta Reform Act of 2009 to administer water rights in the
Delta, where there are some 2,800 separate water diversions.
Paskenta, population 112, is an out-of-the-way place where
rustic ranches grace grass-covered hills rolling west toward
Mendocino Pass. … A water crisis has triggered a rude
awakening.
A federal judge Monday said he needed more information before
he can determine if the government has erred in allowing Nestle
to continuously withdraw millions of gallons of water annually
from Strawberry Creek — 28 years after the company’s permit
expired.
Environmentalists and other organizations are turning up the
heat under international food and beverage provider Nestlé as a
legal challenge to the company’s water operations in the San
Bernardino National Forest heads toward a long-awaited federal
court hearing Monday.
Officials issued the fine to the Byron Bethany Irritation
District at the height of the drought last summer, but the
water board on June 7 affirmed two hearing officers’ earlier
ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the district
took water it wasn’t entitled to under its century-old water
right.
State water regulators on Tuesday formally dismissed complaints
against two Delta water districts accused of diverting water
illegally during the worst of the drought last summer.
State water regulators Tuesday dismissed a record $1.5-million
fine against a Northern California irrigation district accused
of diverting water last year in violation of a drought order.
Will Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion Delta tunnels divert water
to southern California that belongs to northern Californians?
… Months of contentious public hearings start July 27.
A recent article, “Behind the Lawsuit to Turn Off Spigot to
Nestle,” showed one perspective on the U.S. Forest Service
(USFS) process to renew Nestle Waters’ special-use permit to
transport water through the forest. Here is another. First,
Nestle Waters holds senior water rights dating back to the
1880s in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Activists who are trying to block Nestle’s bottling of water
from a national forest have questioned the company’s claim that
it holds water rights dating to the 1800s. Now California
regulators are conducting an investigation to get to the bottom
of the dispute.
Nestle is objecting to the U.S. Forest Service’s terms for
issuing it a new permit to continue piping water out of a
national forest, saying the agency is overstepping its
authority and infringing on the company’s water rights.
Three environmentalist groups filed a lawsuit Friday alleging
that to increase water flowing to farms and cities, state and
federal regulators in the drought have repeatedly relaxed
water-quality standards on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to
the detriment of its wild fish species.
A potentially major new fight has erupted over Gov. Jerry
Brown’s plan to build two huge tunnels beneath the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and this time the protests are
coming from a group of farmers that wants the tunnels built.
Late last spring, amid the depths of California’s punishing
drought, state officials made a historic determination that
rivers and creeks were too low for many farms and cities to
draw from. Not everyone agreed, however.
On the surface, hearings in Sacramento starting this week will
determine whether a Delta water district with century-old water
rights pumped illegally for 12 days last summer — and whether
the district should be penalized $1.4 million as a result.
There is a lawsuit in San Diego County that is as old as “I
Love Lucy.” … In 1951, the U.S. government sued thousands of
landowners in and around Fallbrook in a move to secure Camp
Pendleton’s water rights.
[Disque] Deane [Jr.] is not a rancher or a farmer; he’s a
hedge-fund manager who had flown in from New York City the
previous night. And as he appraised the property, he was less
interested in its crop or cattle potential than in a different
source of wealth: the water running through its streams and
coursing beneath its surface.
Nearly three years after the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians sued the Coachella Valley’s largest water districts,
the two sides remain just as far apart in a case that
could force changes in how water is managed locally and set a
precedent for similar disputes nationwide.
The regulations adopted by the State Water Resources Control
Board require all those who divert water from rivers and
streams to measure and report how much they use annually.
… In a separate decision, the state water board ended a
more than decade-long dispute with the Morongo Band of Mission
Indians by deciding not to revoke a license held by the tribe.
Even as California has marched out unprecedented water
restrictions during the drought, the spigots at thousands of
farms and ranches have gone largely unmonitored — a vestige of
the state’s Gold Rush-era water policy.
The complicated pact, backed by the states of California and
Oregon, called for the removal of four hydroelectric dams,
settled water rights disputes and spelled out water allocations
for irrigators and wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin.
A small state agency will soon begin the daunting process of
deciding whether to change the water rights for the state and
federal water projects, allowing them to divert some of their
water from the Sacramento River and bypass the Delta for the
first time.
Imperial Valley farmers know their water is precious and
understand that to preserve a way of life that runs back a
century they have to grapple with the needs of a
drought-stricken state. … In 2003, the Imperial
Irrigation District, under pressure from Senator Dianne
Feinstein and other federal and state officials,
controversially agreed to sell as much as 280,000 acre-feet a
year to San Diego.
With the harvest ending and demand for water on the decline,
senior water-right holders can once more draw from the San
Joaquin River, state officials announced this week.
With the harvest largely over, the State Water Resources
Control Board said there’s enough water in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin watersheds so that holders of senior water rights could
once more divert water from rivers and streams.
Irrigation leaders illegally agreed to sell Stanislaus River
water to outsiders, an Oakdale Irrigation District customer
alleges in a formal complaint. … The district has explained
the deal in meetings, a news release and an Oct. 18
advertisement in The Modesto Bee.
It was the worst drought in California’s history. … Facing a
crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown decided it might be time to tackle a
thorny political subject: water rights. … It was 1978.
Dozens of California farmers and water agencies that were told
to stop drawing river water in June, even though they had what
are known as senior water rights, have been allowed to resume
pumping.
