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Pending water rights applications in Northern California could “change the equation pretty significantly”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 4, 2008 at 7:23 am

A story so important, I’m going to post it again. Mike Taugher’s excellent article on pending water rights applications in Northern California generated much less attention than it deserved. In it, he outlines a problem that the state is going to have to deal with in the near future: all the water that has been promised to Northern Californians a long time ago, but has yet to be delivered:

During the Great Depression, the southern and central parts of the state cut a deal with the north: Let us build big pumps and canals to take your surplus water, and we’ll give it back when you need it. The time to deliver on that promise may be nearing - but coming through will be tough because California’s water supply is already threatened by climate change, a declining Delta ecosystem and a desiccating Colorado Basin.The state agency responsible for doling out water rights, it turns out, has a massive backlog of pending applications for Delta water at the same time experts are coming to the conclusion that the system is already maxed out. This puts the state Water Resources Control Board in a difficult position: How to satisfy historic assurances for the north at a time when the amount of water available for other parts of the state is already being cut?

“Those (applications from the north) can change the equation pretty significantly,” Vicky Whitney, the water rights division chief for the State Water Resources Control Board, testified recently.

The pending applications, which total more than all of the Delta water delivered each year to Southern California, would, to the extent they are granted, take water directly from the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, Whitney told a task force formed to develop solutions to the Delta’s water supply and environmental problems.

“California,” Whitney said, “let permanent demand occur in geographic areas on borrowed water.”

So, essentially, they sent the water down here, but promised to give it back when Northern California needed it. And “origin of rights” and “origin of watershed” statutes, passed in the aftermath of the Owens Valley situation in the early part of the 20th century, guarantees water to those residents and localities living in the regions where the water originates from.

And in the years before the Central Valley Project, the state must have seemed awash in water, so promising to give it back must have seemed easy enough to do, and some dams that were planned to be part of the system were never built. But now, the chickens are coming home to roost. How much water do those pending applications call for? Nearly 2 State Water Project’s full. Now, not all of those pending applications will be approved, but if a substantial amount are, that water would theoretically come out of the water flowing south to us & to the Central Valley.

My take on this: there won’t be anymore water coming to us from Northern California than what we are getting now, and there may be a whole lot less in the future.

Johns said it is incumbent on Southern California water agencies to develop more water supplies, conservation programs and other plans to make up for future losses on the Delta.

It is unknown how many of the pending applications will be granted. But the fact that the demands in the north are on a collision course with the rest of the state should not be a surprise because the North Coast rivers were put off limits to dams in the 1970s and 1980s when those rivers were designated wild and scenic.

“They’ve known that water supply wasn’t going to be there for about 25 years,” said John Herrick, manager of the South Delta Water Agency. “Nobody planned. That doesn’t mean the solution would be easy, but they’ve had 25 years.”

Further, the solution most often touted by some water agencies - an aqueduct to connect the Sacramento River directly with south Delta pumps - will not work if the underlying problem is an insufficient water supply, some critics contend.

“The early plans anticipated developing a lot more water,” said Greg Gartrell, assistant general manager of the Contra Costa Water District. “That never happened. The result is that the system has been squeezed to what appears to be a limit. A (peripheral canal) will not solve the lack of water.”

Check out the full text of Mike Taugher’s excellent and informative article from the Woodland Daily Democrat by clicking here.

March 4, 2008 · Filed Under Water Rights

Comments

One Response to “Pending water rights applications in Northern California could “change the equation pretty significantly””

WaterSource on March 4th, 2008 9:09 am

Agua Blog Maven…

You are absolutely right ! This water right issue is truely signficant.

When similar issues in other states have been before the Court, the original provisions of the water decrees have been upheld !

Get ready Southern California….

Apparently, a new fresh water Source of one million acre feet for California continues to be of no interest to Southern California…even with assurance that Ms. Quagga mussel does not affect delivery of water from the Source.

It is becoming more and more clear why it is signficant that… “development of the Source will not damage the water rights of anyone, anywhere or the environment”.

Maybe some day….Southern California will wake up and smell the roses…nahhh.

Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com

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