In a letter published in the November 24th
edition, Jessica Hall urged HCN to “take a deeper look at water issues in California.” Around the
same time there were several significant developments in the world of California water. And
while GOAT is not the proper forum for a “deep” analysis, we can make readers
aware of those developments and point you toward sources where you can find
more information.
The California legislative
analyst released a report on California’s
Water Supply in late October which some hope will help shake up the world of California water. The
Analyst called for “fundamental changes” in California’s water rights system. Part of
that reform would be state groundwater regulation and a state-run well
permitting system. According to the Analyst, California is one of only two states in the
West that don’t have state-run groundwater permitting. The other state is Texas which some of us
consider a southern state.
The lack of groundwater regulation has allowed irrigation and
other interests to exploit groundwater at will. But when a few years ago an
entrepreneur announced plans to drill a well and export groundwater to Nevada counties began to
step into the void, passing groundwater ordinances. But county regulation has
created a chaotic situation and most Northern California
counties have yet to put any system in place to regulate groundwater. As a
result landowners have been able to drill unregulated wells which appear to be
tapping underground streams interconnected with surface flow. This has
sometimes had a dramatic effect. In the Shasta River Valley, for example, Big
Springs – a volcanic spring thought to originate on Mt. Shasta,
– used to flow about 120 cubic feet per second.(cfs) year around. Then the
landowner where the massive spring emerges drilled two irrigation wells not far
from where the Springs emerge. Big
Springs now flows at 20 cfs.
In the nearby Scott
River Valley
groundwater was a minor irrigation source in the 1950s and grain growing
predominated. Now groundwater pumping accounts for more than half of total
irrigation, alfalfa is the primary crop and flows in the Scott River
have declined to the point where Chinook salmon can’t reach their prime
spawning grounds even in years of average precipitation. A recent empirical
study found that 61% of the decrease in Scott River
flow is not the result of changes in precipitation and snow pack and is likely
the result of the increased groundwater pumping.
The powerful agricultural lobby has already indicated that it
will oppose any move toward state regulation of groundwater. In the past the
agricultural interests have defeated bills that would have only required
assessment of groundwater levels and not well permits. So don’t look for a
statewide groundwater extraction permit system in California anytime soon.
The chaos in California
water management is not limited to groundwater. In Mendocino County,
for example, citizens and salmon activists say the state must deal with
thousands of illegal surface diversion which are dewatering streams in the
county and placing salmon at additional risk of extinction.
The citizens are upset because the State Water Resources
Board wants to approach the problem by forming “watershed councils” rather than
by cracking down on the illegal surface diversions.New wineries and marijuana cultivation are believed to be
the main illegal water diverters.
Meanwhile
some California citizens took matters into
their own hands by filing a lawsuit that could turn out to be as important for California water
management as the now-famous Mono Lake Case. Citing the Public Trust Doctrine
and the state constitution’s ban on “wasteful” use of water, the California
Water Impact Network and the California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance filed
a seven count lawsuit on December 1st which names the California
Department of Water Resources, the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and the
State Water Resources Control Board as defendants.
The
lawsuit asks the courts to end the irrigation of several hundred thousand acres
of selenium contaminated lands on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley
in order to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Big pumps
in the Delta – used to move water south primarily for irrigation – have been
implicated in the decline of Sacramento River salmon, Delta smelt and several
other species. The lands targeted as “unreasonably” irrigated are within the
Westlands Water District. Even though Westlands has junior water rights and its
irrigation wastewater is tainted with selenium, the politically powerful
district has managed to convince the state and federal government to continue
to provide it with irrigation water.
You can
find out more about the new lawsuit on line.
Meanwhile the rainy season has been late in coming to most
of California
and year-to-date rainfall totals are already below normal. With reservoir
carryover storage also low, another drought year could make things very
interesting in California
this summer. While reformers hope another year of drought will provide the
impetus for reform, Governor Schwarzenegger and big agriculture will seek to
use water shortages to build support for new dams and reservoirs.
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