Putting an end to California’s “water rights” scam

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has made it clear that the holders of senior water rights, which date to the turn of the last century and before, are not immune to the demands of the environment and the realities of diminishing supplies of what they claim as their water.

We say good for him, it is about time.

The State Water Resources Control Board is preparing to release reports next week and later this month that will make clear to all parts of the state that they face an era of limits.

Sorry 1%ers, the free ride is coming to an end.

The Water Board is expected to spell out the amount of water that must flow down the once mighty San Joaquin River and its tributaries into the Delta out to the Golden Gate.

That means San Francisco, along with Modesto, Merced, Turlock and other holders of senior water rights, will be forced more directly into the discussion about how best to restore fisheries and ultimately the Delta.

The reports are part of efforts by Brown and his administration to stabilize the water delivery system that serves almost 40 million people, but was constructed when there were fewer than 20 million residents.

Environmentally sensitive residents of San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties have had the luxury of standing off to the side.

Then there is groundwater, the bank that farmers rely upon to irrigate their crops during drought. By Dec. 31, the state must publish a report that will detail the degree of overdrafting and what users must do to replenish the aquifer. Water to recharge groundwater must come from somewhere.

It all will lead to hard choices, less farming, higher costs and pressure to cut water consumption.

It is high time someone put greedy farmers and feckless 1%er environmentalists in their place.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Judge hammers Cali drought regulators

In a significant ruling that could hinder California’s ability to order mass water cutbacks, a judge told state drought regulators Friday they can’t slash the water rights of four Central Valley irrigation districts until each had a chance to defend itself.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the State Water Resources Control Board from enforcing a curtailment notice against the West Side Irrigation District, Central Delta Water Agency, South Delta Water Agency and Woods Irrigation Co. The judge said the four agencies, all primarily agricultural, weren’t given the chance to defend their rights in front of the water board.

While the ruling by Judge Shelleyanne Chang affects only those four agencies, experts said the decision could have statewide implications. The case goes to the heart of what regulators say is a critical tool for allocating supplies in the fourth year of drought.

via Water rights ruling a setback for California drought regulators – The Sacramento Bee.

Who care’s if you’re thirsty…? Cali farmers obviously don’t

The drought has highlighted the arcane workings of California’s water rights system, one that rewards those who got here first and underpins agriculture’s position as the state’s dominant water user.

via Lawsuits over California water rights are a fight a century in the making – LA Times.

San Francisco likely to sue over big state water cuts

State water officials not only told more Central Valley farmers Friday that they need to stop drawing water from low-flowing rivers and creeks — but they tossed the city of San Francisco onto the list as well.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which pipes mountain water from the Yosemite National Park to 2.5 million people in and around the city, was warned Friday that there is not enough flow in the Tuolumne River and its tributaries to continue diverting water into reservoirs at four places.

The move could very well bring legal action because San Francisco officials have been quick to defend their water rights in the past and don’t want to see the state setting a precedent of stripping them.

via New round of big state water cuts to hit San Francisco – SFGate.

Water districts to their thirsty California neighbors, “this is our water”

A group of water districts are suing California regulators over the state’s order prohibiting holders of senior water rights from pumping water out of rivers and streams.

The plaintiffs are challenging the State Water Resources Control Board’s decision last week to ban diversions by 114 different rights holders in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river area.

“This is our water. We believe firmly in that fact, and we are willing to take on the state bureaucracy to protect that right,” said Steve Knell, general manager of the Oakdale Irrigation District, in a prepared statement. Joining in the lawsuit was the South San Joaquin Irrigation District and an umbrella group called the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority.

via Lawsuits challenge California’s drought plan – The Sacramento Bee.

The drought finally catches up to senior-water rights holders

Drought-stricken California has ordered the largest cuts on record to farmers holding some of the state’s strongest water rights.

State water officials announced the decision Friday to tell more than a hundred senior rights holders in California’s Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds to stop pumping from those waterways.

The move marked the first time that the state has forced large numbers of holders of senior-water rights holders to curtail water use. It will affect thousands of farmers.

The move shows California is sparing fewer and fewer users in the push to cut back on water using during the state’s four-year drought.

The order applies to farmers and others whose rights to water were staked more than a century ago. Many farmers holding those senior-water rights contend the state has no authority to order cuts.

via California orders large water cuts for farmers.

Mandatory usage cuts loom even for those with senior water rights

jpgIn the 1976-77 drought, the state ordered growers with some of the oldest water rights in California to stop pumping from many rivers and streams. Now, in a sign of the spreading pain of another punishing drought, regulators are preparing to do the same thing.

The State Water Resources Control Board halted diversions last summer by many so-called junior rights holders — those whose claims date back only as far as 1914. In the last month, the board ordered some 9,000 junior rights holders in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins to stop diversions this summer.

Now the board is expected soon to move further up the rights pecking order and require that some with pre-1914 claims shut off their pumps.

via Mandatory usage cuts loom even for those with senior water rights.

State drought tests water rights

High above a landscape parched by unremitting drought, Meadow Valley Creek courses through the northern Sierra Nevada and pools in a stand of alders behind a tiny, concrete dam.

Robert Forbes draws water from the reservoir through an overturned smokestack and into a ditch that has run west of Quincy for more than 100 years.

He adjusted a piece of plywood at its mouth to restrict the flow one recent morning. In dry years, Forbes said, “I start rationing people along the line.”

Forbes’ family’s access to this water derives from an 1870s claim in Plumas County; and his antiquated management of the ditch — breaking ice with a shovel in the winter, negotiating irrigation schedules among neighbors when the weather warms — has persisted for decades with little intervention.

With 12 customers, the utility Forbes manages is one of the smallest in the state.

But as California stretches into a fourth year of drought, regulators are expanding their reach and running into resistance from holders of some of California’s oldest and strongest water rights.

Earlier this year, the State Water Resources Control Board ordered more than 1,000 property owners to prove their water rights. This month, the board warned claim holders to expect curtailments of their ability to divert water from rivers and streams.

The actions are significant because they include the state’s most senior water rights holders — those claimed before California established its permitting process in 1914.

“The rules are changing,” Forbes said. “They’re shaking us down.”

via MEADOW VALLEY: State drought tests water rights – FresnoBee.com.