At today’s meeting at the State Water Resources Control Board, John O’Hagan updated the board on the curtailment notices and the curtailment statuses in the state, and Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson gave an update on his activities in the Delta.
Note: this update to the Board occurred prior to the public hearing on curtailment notices for Sacramento River tributaries.
Update on Curtailment Notices
Scott River, Siskiyou County
Water diversions in the Scott River watershed have been adjudicated and prioritized. In January of 2014, the State Water Board notified junior water rights holders of potential curtailment by April 1st; according to the court decree, surplus class rights and post-1914 water rights are subject to other senior water rights determined upon the flow registered at the Fort Jones gauge, a USGS gauging station, John O’Hagan said.
‘’Staff monitored the flows of the Scott River and on May 16, 2014, the executive director of the State Water Board issued a notice of curtailment to the junior water right holders, instructing them to cease and desist from diverting water under their junior water right classifications,” he said. “Many of these parties have senior water rights as well as their junior water rights. In total, 212 junior water rights received the curtailment, and those were held by about 141 parties. Each diverter is requested to submit a compliance certification form to the State Water Board, identifying whether they have completely ceased and desist from diverting water, whether they are using an alternate supply like groundwater or their senior water rights, or whether they have some emergency continued need for health and safety needs.” He noted staff would be conducting compliance inspections in the near future.
Russian River
Curtailment notices on the Russian River are in pending status, meaning they could issued at any time based on our analysis, he said. “In the upper Russian River watershed in Mendocino County, we are monitoring the storage changes at Lake Mendocino, which is the major reservoir supply in the upper watershed, and that is currently has a slight increase in storage on a daily basis,” Mr. O’Hagan said. “It is likely that those storage levels will begin to drop. The storage increases are mostly due to imported water from the Eel River system. Current staff analysis indicates that curtailment of certain post-1914 water rights with a priority date later than 1954 located upstream of Healdsburg is pending, so those would be possible issues of curtailment at any time based on our analysis. After June 1, there may be insufficient natural flows to sustain surface diversions by riparian rights upstream of the confluence of Dry Creek. Staff continues to monitor the lower portion of the Russian River and at this time, and we have no recommendations for potential curtailment.”
Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed
Mr. O’Hagan said that on the Sacramento River, Shasta, Trinity, Oroville, and now Folsom are now releasing stored water, and on the San Joaquin River side, New Melones, New Hogan, Buchanan, New Don Pedro and Hidden Dam, are also releasing stored water. Friant Dam and New Exchequer Dam on the Merced River appear to still be collecting storage, he noted.
“Our analysis shows that based on prior right demands, curtailment of all post-1914 water rights in the Sacramento-San Joaquin basin-wide watershed could be pending at this time,” said Mr. O’Hagan. “Several groups have contacted the State Water Board regarding agreements that they have reached amongst senior water right holders, especially in the San Joaquin River and then on the Yuba River. They are recommending that curtailment would not serve any beneficial purpose to protecting their senior water rights, and that their conservation efforts have reduced their demands. They feel that a curtailment at this time would not benefit any parties.” He noted that there were also questions regarding the data used, which they were working on resolving.
Tulare Lake Basin
“On the Tulare Lake Basin, which includes Kings River, Kaweah River, and Tule River, it appears that our analysis, based on demand would support a curtailment of all post-1914 water rights at this time,” said Mr. O’Hagan. “However, we’ve been contacted by all the watermasters on those watersheds, and they have historically operated and maintained the flows in the river to satisfy prior rights and they also suggest that curtailment would serve no purpose at this time. They feel that their operation is satisfying the downstream prior right demands and then the curtailment of the smaller upstream diverters would not benefit their prior right holders. We are seeking comments from these watermasters regarding whether their regulation of diversions ensures that there is no unreasonable effect on instream uses. We are weighing that response.”
Executive Tom Howard on what’s coming next
“I did want to update the board members to know that starting immediately after tomorrow’s workshop, unless we receive direction to the contrary, we will be sending out curtailment notices for the post-1954 Russian River diverters above Healdsburg,” said Executive Director Tom Howard. “We will also start sending out notices for various areas within the Sacramento Basin by as early as the close of business tomorrow, and certainly by the next day. But we wanted the Board members to first hear the comments from the stakeholders on the alternatives for curtailment and give any direction that they want to provide at that point before we commence.”
Delta Watermaster Update
Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson began by saying that his update is not necessarily drought, but more to things that are within the statutory authority of the Delta Watermaster.
Certainty in the Delta
Since his appointment, Mr. Wilson has been working on providing more certainty regarding water diversion activities in the Delta: how many people are diverting water, where they are, how much water is being diverted, and the certainty of their water rights. He presented a slide with statistics he has compiled on the Delta, and noted that the vast majority of water right claims in the legal Delta are not permittees and licensees of the State Board, but rather are people that hold riparian rights and pre-1914 rights.
“The vehicle that we really use to provide this certainty and information about water use in the Delta is the reporting requirements by both permittees and licensees and people subject to these statements of water diversion and use program,” he said, noting that these are the stats for the last reporting cycle in 2012. “As you can see, there’s about 2000 or so people that were subject to the reporting requirements, and all but 6 have filed statements. Five of those six I believe have been referred to the Attorney General, and we’ll still working with one and may finally get that.” He also noted that he has included the chart for the 2013 reporting year, although the information is complete as these reports are not due until July 1st.
Mr. Wilson said another feature that’s been developed and added to the website is an interactive water rights map of the legal Delta which includes information about individual diversions, topographical views, and other information about each island and tract. There are also narrative summaries available for about two-thirds of the islands.
Term 91
Term 91 is a standard provision that was put into more junior water right permittees and licensees on the Sacramento River watershed in 1980 which basically says that when the projects are releasing stored water to meet in-basin benefits and water quality standards, those with Term 91 provisions have to cease their diversion under that permit or license, explained Mr. Wilson. “It’s fairly routinely invoked, and since 1980, there’s only been about 5 years where it has not been invoked. The length of time and how early it comes in is dependent on the type of year that we’ve had so obviously this year, being a drier year, the curtailment notices under Term 91 were sent out last week. The curtailment period begins today. There are about 93 people that were subject to this permit based on them actually having a water right that’s in effect right now. It will be handled pretty much like other curtailments; they have to file a certification that either they’ve ceased their diversion or have found an alternative supply. We will go out and check on their compliance.”
D-1641
With regards to water right decision D-1641, the water right permit for the major water projects and their transfer of water from north to the south, there are many conditions in that permit to protect beneficial uses in the Delta, said Mr. Wilson. “One of those is San Joaquin River flows including pulse flows at Vernalis. It’s been a vexing issue ever since the Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan ceased, and the responsibility to meet the actual standard itself was placed on the Bureau of Reclamation. Mr. Howard did, as part of the TUCP, approve a petition by Reclamation to modify the pulse flow somewhat this year. I was intimately involved with that because there were some issues for exceedances of some of the flow requirements, or failure to meet them.”
“I basically told Reclamation that my enforcement discretion on some of those issues would be tempered by how much these stepped up to the plate and dealt with the pulse flow issue this year even though it was a dry period,” he continued. “And I believe they did step up in their petition, and the pulse flows that were provided were about 80% of what the underlying order provided, which 80% of meeting the requirement in this dry year is pretty good. It helped get fish down the San Joaquin River before it got too warm. It dramatically improved salinity conditions in the southern Delta, and also allowed some export of additional water. The only down side, New Melones storage was reduced quite a bit to accomplish these things.”
South Delta salinity
“There are provisions in D-1641 for the southern Delta regarding salt and salinity,” he said. “It’s been an interesting situation with the pulse flows that every compliance monitoring station – Vernalis and three of the four in the interior Delta stations – were dramatically improved, but we have this one vexing compliance station, the Tracy Bridge station, where it’s routinely exceeded. The Board had a cease and desist order in effect for many years, which requires feasible and reasonable things to be done to try and address that situation. I had a meeting with South Delta Wter Agency, DWR and other representatives on May 15, and for the first time we really started talking about potential fixes to this vexing area where we have this scrambled egg situation of meandering sloughs with not much dilution and very slow moving current. We talked about a lot of potential fixes and I was really happy to see that that we were moving beyond talking about generalities and talking about something that could actually have the potential to fix the salinity situation in that particular area.”
For more information …
- Click here for the drought year information page of the State Water Resources Control Board.
- Click here for the webpage for the Delta Watermaster.
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