Aerial shot of flooding after rains this past December along the confluence of the Scott River and Kidder Creek near Fort Jones in Siskiyou County shows the accumulation of precipitation that farmers say will help as they enter this water year. Photo by Mel Fletcher.

AG ALERT: State Water Board readopts drought flows for Siskiyou

By Christine Souza, Ag Alert

Even though hydrologic conditions point to a more positive water outlook for the Scott River and Shasta River in Siskiyou County, state water officials last week readopted drought emergency regulations that curtail water rights in the region, affecting farmers and ranchers.

At its Jan. 7 meeting, the California State Water Resources Control Board readopted an emergency drought regulation that took effect in 2021 after Gov. Gavin Newsom first issued a drought state of emergency. Readopted for the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds every year since, the order limits surface-water diversions and groundwater pumping. It also prioritizes minimum instream flow recommendations from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect threatened salmon and steelhead trout.

The regulation ensures water supplies for human health and livestock and encourages the use of voluntary efforts in lieu of curtailments. Individual groundwater users can enter a number of different local cooperative solutions to avoid curtailment. One example is a general water-use reduction of 30% in the Scott River or 15% in the Shasta River.

“Even though it’s a really good water year, and even though we’re pretty confident that curtailments should not be necessary, we’re still going to give up big chunks of our production just as an insurance payment in case curtailments do happen,” said Ryan Walker, president of the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau.

Walker, a rancher based in Montague, spoke before the state water board last week. He said of the conditions in the two watersheds: “We’ve gotten a year’s worth of rain since Oct. 1, and there’s a good start to the snowpack that is well above 100% (of average) for this time of the year.”

Philip Dutton, a supervising engineer with the state water board division of water rights, said the snow water equivalent is well above average for this time of year for the region but that it is not a good indicator of cumulative snowpack for the water year or flows during drier months. For the Klamath River watershed, he said, most snow falls between January and March,  and water availability for the Scott and Shasta rivers depends on cumulated snowpack in April and May.

During the 2022-23 water year, the state received significant precipitation that was above the long-term average. However, board staff reported that the Klamath watershed did not receive record rain or snow last year. Staff said the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds and the fishery continue to experience lingering drought impacts.

“There is this fiction being told that there are continuing effects from the drought driving the situation in the Scott and Shasta watersheds,” Walker said. “Maybe (this is the case) in a big aquifer basin like in the San Joaquin Valley where it takes multiple years to rebuild back that aquifer, but our aquifer is well documented to recharge—even in drought years—100%.”

Some commenters said the emergency authority given to the state to continually readopt drought curtailment regulations makes water-year type irrelevant.

Alexandra Biering, a California Farm Bureau policy advocacy director, pointed to a comment letter submitted by the Farm Bureau that raises concerns about the precedential nature of the emergency action, especially when hydrologic conditions in Siskiyou County may not warrant it.

“We’re heading into the fourth consecutive year of doing this emergency regulation, and two of those years were not severe drought years,” Biering said. “Continually issuing and approving emergency regulations each year has a practical impact of imposing a semipermanent regulation.”

This approach, Biering added, “comes without the transparency and accountability that you would have from a permanent rulemaking like in the CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) process,” which she said provides a full accounting of the impact of the regulation on agriculture and the fishery.

Shari Anderson of NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region encouraged the state water board to readopt the regulation to support coho salmon listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“If we have a great water year, it’ll be a win-win for everybody with irrigation being able to proceed without curtailments and fish having their biological minimum flows,” she said. “If it doesn’t work out that way, it’s important that we have this backstop of a bare minimum biological flow that will protect these fish.”

Irrigators affected by the regulation, either by having to curtail water or if they reduce water use by a lesser percentage by entering into local cooperative solutions, or LCSs, face financial impacts even in a wet year when the state decides not to curtail irrigators.

“The way the emergency regulations work, we can’t take the catastrophic risk of curtailments, so we enter into LCSs, which require us to give up water early in the season,” Walker said. “Regardless of the water year, we will enter into LCSs, and we’ll give up 30% of our water early on.”

Meanwhile, last October, the board directed staff to start work on development of permanent, long-term flow requirements on the two rivers that limit surface-water diversions and groundwater extractions. The action is partially in response to petitions submitted in 2023 by the Karuk Tribe, Environmental Law Foundation, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Institute of Fisheries Resources.

“It’s going to be a long process,” Walker said of the permanent regulations, adding that he anticipates a few more years of emergency flow regulations by the state.

Although affected farmers asked the state water board to hold off on readopting emergency flow requirements, Walker said he and other affected irrigators plan to continue working with state staff and others on a compromise and “a legal solution to the salmon issue in the two valleys.”

To help the Scott and Shasta watersheds, Walker said work is happening this year related to a $3.2 million CDFW grant awarded to the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau last spring. The grant involves working with willing landowners to conserve water, including by fallowing fields to reduce water use.

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)