The State Water Board fined the association the maximum amount for the violation: $4,000, which worked out to about $50 for each of its members. defied a curtailment order for eight days and diverted more than half the river’s flow, flouting requirements aimed at protecting salmon. The bill is intended to prevent the sort of violations that occurred in August in the Shasta River watershed, when farmers and ranchers who belong to the Shasta River Water Assn. The change would help the water rights system function the way it’s supposed to, “before we run out of time to fix it,” Allen said.Īnother bill, AB 460, would strengthen the State Water Board’s enforcement powers to stop illegal water diversions and would sharply increase fines for violators. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who introduced the proposal.Ĭalifornia’s existing water rights allocate far more water than is available in an average year, Allen noted, and state water regulators are tasked with making the system work through increasingly intense droughts. “They’ve got to have more tools at their disposal to better understand the rights system as it exists,” said Sen.
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In its decision, the court suggested it’s up to the Legislature to determine whether it’s time to update the law.Īnother measure approved by the Senate, SB 389, would give the State Water Board the authority to investigate and verify whether the claims of senior rights holders are valid and accurate. The legislation was drafted in response to a recent decision by an appeals court, which sided with water agencies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that had challenged the state’s authority to order cuts. One bill - AB 1337, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) - would clarify that the State Water Board has authority to issue a curtailment order for all diverters, including senior rights holders. She said the bills in the Legislature would partially address some of their recommendations, while still leaving some “concerning gaps in the state’s ability to manage water scarcity.” Green Nylen is part of a group of legal experts who recently published a state-funded report outlining recommendations for legislative and policy changes to improve oversight and management of the water rights system. Three bills gaining momentum in the Legislature are seeking to change that, even as they draw heated opposition from water agencies and agricultural groups. Among other problems, they say, current law prevents officials from verifying whether claims of senior water rights are valid, ordering those water users to reduce usage, or imposing fines that are large enough to penalize those who flout the rules. Legal experts say the way the state manages this antiquated system is in dire need of reform. Today, California’s oldest and most senior water rights - called riparian and pre-1914 rights - have been passed along to thousands of agricultural landowners, irrigation districts and urban water suppliers that claim control of roughly one-third of the water that is diverted from the state’s rivers and streams.īut increasingly, California water regulators are struggling to manage supplies for 39 million residents, agriculture and the environment as climate change warps the hydrologic cycle and brings longer-lasting and more severe droughts.
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California’s complex system of water rights took shape starting in the mid-1800s, when settlers saw the state’s water as abundant and free for the taking - a time when a Gold Rush prospector could stake claim to river flows simply by nailing a notice to a tree.
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