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.
Colorado and three other Upper Colorado River Basin states
have, for the first time in history, embarked on a series of
formal meetings to find a way to negotiate jointly with some of
the largest owners of Colorado River water rights: tribal
communities. The states, which include New Mexico, Utah,
Wyoming and Colorado, began meeting with six tribes several
weeks ago, according to Rebecca Mitchell, director of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board who also represents Colorado
on the Upper Colorado River Basin Commission.
A court ruling last week over senior water rights came as
welcome news to agricultural interests that have long battled
the State Water Resources Control Board over drought
curtailments. Yet while the decision sets a limit on the
board’s authority, the agency retains several regulatory tools
for curtailing the diversions, and lawmakers could add more.
California’s Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled the
board lacks jurisdiction under the state water code “to curtail
an entire class of pre-1914 appropriative water rights.”
Farmers obtained them before California began regulating water
rights in 1913 and have fought hard to preserve them ever
since.
The outlook for rain has prompted state water regulators to
lift restrictions on about a third of the Russian River water
rights curtailed earlier this summer due to limited supplies in
Lake Mendocino and the rest of the system. The State Water
Resource Control Board is restoring 294 water rights in the
watershed as of Saturday because of a storm expected to bring
up to 2½ inches of precipitation to upper elevations beginning
Saturday night. The board’s staff expects [this] week to
revisit the status of the remaining 596 water rights still
curtailed after Saturday to see how much rainfall materializes
and how it’s affecting the watershed, said Sam Boland-Brien,
supervising engineer with the Division of Water Rights.
Art Chianello, who has led Bakersfield’s Water Resources
Department through two of the state’s worst droughts and one of
its wettest years on record, is retiring at the end of
September. Most municipal water departments are fairly quiet
operations. As long as water comes out of taps, not many people
pay attention. But the Bakersfield water department is in the
unique position of also tracking and managing flows on the Kern
River – a highly contentious piece of water – which it partly
owns.
The first appellate court to consider a case regarding
California’s curtailments of senior water rights held that the
State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board” or
“Board”) lacked authority under Water Code section 1052(a) to
curtail pre-1914 water rights based on the unavailability of
water for use under such rights. The curtailment cases began in
2015, in the middle of a multi-year drought, when the State
Water Board curtailed the exercise of many water rights across
the state in an effort to implement the priority system arising
from California’s water laws.
With 25 years of experience working on the Colorado River,
Chuck Cullom is used to responding to myriad challenges that
arise on the vital lifeline that seven states, more than two
dozen tribes and the country of Mexico depend on for water. But
this summer problems on the drought-stressed river are piling
up at a dizzying pace: Reservoirs plummeting to record low
levels, whether Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to
release water and produce hydropower, unprecedented water cuts
and predatory smallmouth bass threatening native fish species
in the Grand Canyon.
Water suppliers in and near Stanislaus County had a leading
role in a ruling Monday limiting state cutbacks during drought.
The 6th Appellate District Court found that the State Water
Resources Control Board lacks the power to interfere with
so-called “senior” water rights holders and curtail their
diversions of water from rivers. The case stems from orders
imposed by the state board in 2015, during the previous
drought, when it halted farms and cities throughout the Central
Valley from taking water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers. The Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation
districts joined the suit to protect their rights to the
Stanislaus River.
Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the
alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of
the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. But
Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a
much wetter period. And now, water officials are grappling with
how to make do with less. State Engineer Mike Hamman, New
Mexico’s top water manager, said the state “really feels the
shortages” because it doesn’t have the big reservoirs of other
states in the Colorado River Basin. … Nevada, Arizona
and Mexico will all receive less water from the Colorado River
next year because of rapidly-declining reservoirs, the Interior
Department announced on Aug. 16.
Surrounding Bernal’s land are the vistas of the Grand Valley, a
strip of high desert situated on Colorado’s Western Slope
marked by dusty mesas and cliffs and the winding, ever-present
Colorado River, which plunges down from the mountains to the
east. Grand Valley farmers and ranchers use the water to
irrigate tens of thousands of acres, growing everything from
peaches and corn to wheat and alfalfa. But since 2000
flows on the river have declined 20% and water levels at Lake
Powell and Lake Mead have dropped to less than 30% of their
combined storage. With the river overtaxed, Grand Valley
farmers now face difficult questions regarding the future of
water in Colorado and the West.
California’s drought regulators have lost a major lawsuit that
could undermine their legal authority to stop farms and cities
from pulling water from rivers and streams. With California in
its third punishing year of a historic drought, an appeals
court ruled Monday that the State Water Resources Control Board
lacks the power to interfere with so-called “senior” water
rights holders and curtail their diversions of water from
rivers. The case stems from orders imposed by the state board
in 2015, during the previous drought, when it halted farms and
cities throughout the Central Valley from taking water from the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. … [Brian Gray, a
water-rights expert at the Public Policy Institute of
California] said the court’s ruling did suggest that the
board could exercise its authority over senior rights holders
by using emergency powers granted by the governor.
California water agencies that depend on Colorado River supply
are quietly negotiating combined reductions of between 320,000
and 400,000 acre-feet from the fast-dwindling Lake Mead
reservoir next year…. California has the largest and oldest
rights to Colorado River water, totaling 4.4 million acre-feet
per year, with the bulk of that piped to farmers served by the
Imperial Irrigation District, at the state’s hot, dry
southeastern end…. It’s unclear if the amounts being
discussed would be enough to assuage harsh criticism from
officials in other river basin states who are already being
forced to make cuts under previous legal agreements, or more
importantly, to satisfy federal officials who say 2 million to
4 million acre-feet in reduced use is needed from seven states
in 2022 to keep the system and its huge, drought-ravaged
reservoirs afloat.
California is at a transformational moment when it comes to
managing water. As aridification of the western United States
intensifies, we have an opportunity to advance a better
approach to flow management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta and our rivers through a process of voluntary agreements
to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The
agreements, signed by parties from Red Bluff to San Diego,
propose a new structure for managing water resources in the
Delta and beyond in a way that is collaborative, innovative and
foundational for adapting to climate realities while benefiting
communities, farms, fish and wildlife. -Written by Jennifer Pierre, the general manager
of the State Water Contractors, an association of 27
public water agencies; and David Guy, president of
the Northern California Water Association, which
represents Sacramento Valley water interests.
Faced with deep cuts to the water supply, and angry that other
states are not doing their share, tribes and local governments
in Arizona are increasingly talking about backing off earlier
offers to give up some water. The Gila River Indian Community
said in August that it will begin storing
water underground “rather than contributing them to system
conservation programs for Lake Mead.” Officials in Phoenix,
Scottsdale, Tucson, Peoria and Glendale are considering
following suit, asking to get their full allotment of water
instead of financial compensation they might have received for
reducing their take from the system…. But a spokesperson
for the California Natural Resources Agency said the state has
long been working for years to conserve Colorado River water
and that it is continuing to do so.
Teal Lehto honed her short, snappy explanations of the West’s
complex water problems guiding rafting trips down the Animas
River in her hometown of Durango. She often had lulls of a
minute or less in between shouting paddle commands to the
tourists in her boat — squeezing in a tidy explanation of how
water rights work before yelling “all forward” to her boatmates
to keep them from ramming into rocks. After running the same
stretch of river a few times a day for months, the timing
became second nature. … That same formula works on TikTok,
just trade the tips for likes and followers. On the app, Lehto
goes by “WesternWaterGirl,” and her clips regularly garner
hundreds of thousands of views. Since joining the app in April,
she’s amassed nearly 48,000 followers who tune in for her
fast-paced, snarky and often profanity-laced takes on the
West’s water crisis.
Divvying up Colorado River water has been the subject of at
least two letters this week from Republican and Democratic
members of Arizona’s congressional delegation. One note
was sent to the head of the U.S. Department of Interior and the
other to the governor of California. A letter signed by
Republicans Debbie Lesko, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar calls on
the Interior secretary to quickly help with negotiations
between states that rely on the Colorado River. The
lawmakers also want the feds to make California take water cuts
proportional to its usage.
Turlock Irrigation District’s board of directors voted
unanimously Tuesday to move toward a voluntary agreement that
would supersede flow requirements within the Bay-Delta Water
Quality Control Plan. That plan was first adopted in
2018, but the flow requirements never have been implemented.
But since then, the plan has been the flashpoint for a
debate — in simplest terms, think of it as fish vs. farms
— that pits the environmental groups, such as the Tuolumne
River Trust, against public utilities, such as the Turlock
Irrigation District, Modesto Irrigation District and the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Those three agencies
share the Tuolumne River’s water rights.
This is the third in a series of videos attempting to break
down and explain who owns the Kern River. Structures along the
river measure its flows and then divvy it up between its
historic owners. So, it’s important to understand these
structures, where they are and how they work. We looked at
First Point of measurement in our last video. That’s where the
flows are first measured. Those measurements have a direct
impact on the structure we visit in this video, which is called
Second Point of measurement.
The water managers of the Yakima River basin in arid Central
Washington know what it’s like to fight over water, just like
their counterparts along the Colorado River are fighting now.
… But a decade ago, the water managers of the Yakima Basin
tried something different. Tired of spending more time in
courtrooms than at conference tables, and faced with studies
showing the situation would only get worse, they hashed out a
plan to manage the Yakima River and its tributaries for the
next 30 years to ensure a stable supply of water.
In the mountains and foothills of California, an enduring
drought has depleted the state’s major reserves of water. …
But in the central Sierra Nevada, a trio of artificial lakes
remain flush with cold mountain water. The largest of them,
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, from which millions of Bay Area
residents receive water, is more than 80 percent full. … But
some environmental advocates are hardly cheering San
Francisco’s water conservation success. Instead, they’re
accusing the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission of
hoarding its water through an excessively conservative
management plan they say harms the environment and benefits
almost no one – not even the city dwellers who use the water.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his water supply
strategy, which is designed to address California’s warming
climate and increasing drought intensity. Central to this
strategy is expanding storage to capture water during wet
periods and to help urban and agricultural users make it
through dry times. But why stop there? What about storing water
for the environment? … We propose a change in course.
Using a simple reservoir model, we demonstrate that ecosystem
managers can achieve better environmental outcomes when they
are granted a percentage of reservoir inflow along with a
portion of storage capacity. Flexibly managed, this combination
of inflow and storage leads to the most efficient use of
environmental water. -Written by Sarah Null, 2021–22 CalTrout Ecosystem
Fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center; and Jeffrey Mount,
a geomorphologist, is a senior fellow at the PPIC
Water Policy Center.
Without reform, California’s [water rights] system means that
the most senior water rights holders—those who declared the
water theirs during the violent and exclusionary settling of
California in the late 1800s, early 1900s, predominantly
irrigation districts—get first claim to the available water,
while water for people to drink and bathe and water for the
environment only get the leftovers. But it doesn’t have to be
this way. This century-old system of water rights does not
reflect current values, and it should not dictate how the state
prioritizes our limited water supplies. FM3 recently polled
Californians to obtain their views on a variety of
matters, including our water rights system.
Major parties in a water lawsuit involving thousands of Ojai
Valley property owners say they need more time to complete
ongoing mediation talks. During an Aug. 25 status conference in
the Ventura River Watershed Adjudication case, attorney Shawn
Hagerty, representing the city of Ventura, said the parties are
“working hard” and “making progress,” but there’s still “a lot
of work to be done.” A six-month stay in the case granted
March 29 by Highberger is set to expire on Sept. 30.
An environmental group is arguing that the city’s water agency
is taking too much water from the Sierra Nevadas, and that its
drought planning will wind up hoarding water unnecessarily and
hurting vulnerable river ecosystems. The group, Tuolomne
River Trust, says its pleadings have fallen on deaf ears up
until now. But with the state mulling the Bay Delta Water
Quality Control Plan, a plan that would reduce the city’s
rights to water from the Tuolomne River, the question of
whether San Francisco controls more than its fair share of
water is back up for discussion and spilled over into a meeting
of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on
Tuesday.
Navajo Nation residents in pickup trucks rumbled along dusty
dirt roads in the ethereal painted desert of Monument Valley in
August to a well where they fill up water tanks, sometimes
multiple times a day. The well spigot in the dirt parking lot
next to a shuttered post office in Goulding, Utah, is just up
the road from modern lodges that house tourists visiting the
valley, one of the most iconic settings for Western movies.
… The Navajo, or Diné, have heard for decades the
promise of running water in their homes. Many have yet to see
it, and they don’t expect it to arrive any time soon.
Southern Californians know about neighbors using more than
their fair share of water. But what about growers who steal
water from farms, businesses or even houses? L.A. Times
columnist Patt Morrison looked at the long history of poaching
in California and how it relates to today’s water fights.
Here’s what Patt says. Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on
Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum
News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can
watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
Native people have lived in the Southwestern U.S. for millennia
and have traditional ways to manage water that have worked for
them. When settlers arrived, they upended that system. Now,
tribes in the Colorado River Basin are trying to elevate
indigneous approaches to water management. University of
Arizona doctoral candidate Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan is finishing
a dissertation on the history of land and water in the San
Xavier District, part of the Tohono O’odham Nation, just south
of Tucson. Some of her research has taken her to the Santa Cruz
River. On a quiet stretch tall trees, made archways and
provided shade from the sun.
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.
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
Travel 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.
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 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 – water rights
laws based on ownership of land bordering a waterway. The
riparian property owner—one who lives next to the river—
possesses 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.
