Under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), California farmers and ranchers will face hefty fines for violating water curtailment orders.
Assembly Bill (AB) 460, authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-16), would require the State Water Resources Control Board to adjust annually, for inflation, the civil and administrative penalties imposed for water rights violations, starting in 2026.
The bill also increases the civil penalty for violating a cease-and-desist order related to water use from $1,000 a day to $2,500 per day. Additionally, the bill raises the penalty for violating water permits, licenses or regulations to $1,000 per day from $500 per day.
For violations of curtailment orders, penalties could reach $10,000 per day and $2,500 per acre-foot of unauthorized water diverted.
“Climate change is challenging California’s water rights system like never before,” Bauer-Kahan said in the Assembly floor analysis. “Extreme drought and weather events are revealing some inherent weaknesses and gaps in the existing system. One of these areas is in (the state waterboard’s) ability to enforce the water rights system.”
Bauer-Kahan continued that “the existing penalties for violations are insufficient to deter unlawful behavior” and will “enhance penalties so that potential violators will see a penalty as more than a cost of doing business.”
Newsom signed the bill on Sept. 22 after the legislature submitted amendments. Agriculture groups opposed the original bill proposed last year, but the California Farm Bureau dropped its opposition after provisions were removed allowing state officials to intervene more quickly to prevent “irreparable injury” to rivers, ecosystems and other water users, according to the nonprofit news outlet Cal Matters. Opponents argued that these expanded powers could potentially impact law-abiding water users.
Kirk Wilbur, vice president of government affairs for the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), told WLJ the organization changed their stance to neutral after Bauer-Kahan amended the bill “to remove its most problematic provisions, significantly narrowing the bill.”
Wilbur said the amendments removed the interested party provision, which was seen as vulnerable to misuse by anti-grazing activists. They also eliminated the proposed interim relief proceedings, which could have deprived water users of due process and made some aspects of the water code—intended solely for planning—directly enforceable, he said.
“As presented to the governor, AB 460 is now limited to increasing the maximum fines the water board can levy against violators,” Wilbur wrote in an email. “CCA has significant concerns about increasing the water board’s authority to levy hefty fines—hence, we’re not in support of the bill—but the bill is in far better shape than it was as introduced in 2023.”
He added, “CCA will work to ensure that the board does not utilize its new fining authority to levy excessive penalties.”
In a letter to Bauer-Kahan, Wilbur expressed the CCA’s concerns about AB 460’s penalty provisions, warning they could lead to excessive fines for minor, unintentional violations of curtailment orders. He cited livestock stockponds, often rain-fed and lacking bypasses, as an example of how water rights holders could face penalties despite no intentional wrongdoing. Wilbur argued that fines, such as $15,000 for a one-acre-foot stockpond, may be “grossly disproportional to the gravity of the offense,” potentially violating the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on excessive fines.
Tribes and environmental organizations supported the bill. Analise Rivero, associate director of policy at California Trout, told Cal Matters that diverters “will think twice” about taking water despite climate change and drought.
Reason for bill
The bill was introduced after producers in the Shasta River Water Association (SRWA) defied curtailment orders imposed by the State Water Resource Board.
The SRWA—an irrigation group representing 80 ranchers in Siskiyou County—began diverting water on Aug. 17, 2022, reducing Shasta River flows below the required minimum. In a letter to the water board, SRWA cited weather conditions as the reason for diverting water for irrigation, livestock and fire suppression, noting that exemptions are allowed with approval. However, according to the State Water Resources Control Board, the group’s actions violated a curtailment order.
Jim Scala, a third-generation rancher and president of SRWA, told CalMatters in August 2022 that he grew frustrated with seeing a pond dry up where his cattle used to drink water. Scala and other ranchers decided, “To hell with it; we’re starting the pumps.”
The water board issued a notice of violation to SRWA, notifying them to stop diverting water immediately as water flows in the Shasta River dropped. The board fined SRWA $500 daily for eight days, or $4,000, costing each rancher $50. According to Cal Matters, if the measure had been in effect, the fine would have exceeded $1.2 million.
“We accomplished what we set out to do,” Rick Lemos, a fifth-generation rancher and SRWA board member, told Cal Matters in 2022. “We got relief for the cattle that were out of water and wading out in the mud and getting stuck.”
According to the water board, curtailments for overlying and adjudicated groundwater diversions were lifted as of Sept. 6 for the Scott and Shasta watersheds. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
