SACRAMENTO—As the hot, dry summer wears on, shutoff notices to California’s most longstanding water right holders could occur on a weekly or even daily basis, state officials and farm groups warn.
Water regulators “pretty much are looking at water supply versus demand every day,” said George Kostyrko, spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board.
The warming comes as the city of San Francisco was among the latest batch of senior water right holders south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to receive stop-diversion orders. The water board issued curtailment notices June 26 for the city’s four appropriative water rights on the Tuolumne River dating back to 1903, though the order represents only a small portion of San Francisco’s water supply.
The city’s rights were included as the state curtailed pre- and post-1914 appropriative water rights on the upper San Joaquin River as well as senior rights on the Merced River dating back to 1858.
The latest order affects 16 water rights held by 11 owners, bringing the total number of senior right holders to receive shutoff notices to 297. No more curtailment orders were imminent as of June 30, but that could change quickly, water board spokesman Tim Moran said.
Workers in the board’s Division of Water Rights “are analyzing water conditions in watersheds throughout the state, and when they determine there is not enough water in a stream or river to protect more senior water rights, they issue the curtailment notices,” Moran said in an email.
In all, 8,721 junior right holders throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys have been told there is insufficient water to serve their rights, according to the water board.
“The need for further curtailment of more senior rights and curtailments in other watersheds is being assessed weekly” by the water board, the Almond Board of California advised growers in a newsletter.
State officials said the water board uses monthly diversion data in each watershed to determine availability as well as daily natural flow data from the Department of Water Resources. As supplies continue to decline through the summer, more senior right holders will be affected, the water board cautioned.
The state issued its first widespread curtailment orders to senior right holders since 1977 on June 12, affecting 277 rights held by 114 right holders. As of last week, less than one-third of the farmers, water districts and communities affected by the shutoffs had met a deadline to confirm they stopped pumping, the water board reported.
The Banta-Carbona Irrigation District in Tracy is challenging the curtailment order in court, arguing the water board overstepped its authority. The board’s chair, Felicia Marcus, has said she welcomes litigation to solve longstanding questions over the board’s powers, The Associated Press reported.
State officials have maintained they have the authority to restrict water use in a drought under a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1928 requiring all water use to be “reasonable and beneficial.”
The water board issued two letters earlier this year warning all water right holders that water may be unavailable to them this year because of drought conditions. Last year, the board issued curtailment notices to more than 5,000 diverters in five watersheds, nearly all of whom have junior rights.
In May, the board approved a plan for senior right holders in the Delta to voluntarily cut their water use by 25 percent from 2013 levels to avoid more drastic cuts later. In all, 229 applications from farmers to participate in the plan were received by a June 1 deadline.
Still, a consortium of mostly urban water districts called the State Water Contractors complain that Delta farmers are diverting too much.
“These landowners in the Delta have long-standing water rights that entitle them to water when nature provides it, but those rights do not entitle them to stored water paid for by others and intended for the environment,” said Stephanie Morris, the State Water Contractors’ acting general manager.
“If nature ran its course, the Delta (water) would not be suitable for drinking or farming this summer,” Morris said in a statement.
The complaint drew a sharp rebuke from Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, who argued the water contractors are only concerned with having enough water to export and are unconcerned about the environment.
Source: www.capitalpress.com