The California State Water Resources Control Board plans to fine ranchers in Siskiyou County for violating orders to cut back their water use last year. The California Water Code calls for a fine of no more than $500 per day for each day the violation occurs, resulting in a $4,000 fine for the eight days of violation.
The Shasta River Water Association turned on their pumps to divert water to about 80 producers in the area. The fine, split among the producers, amounts to about $50 per producer.
“They obviously don’t have much enforcement power because they showed up and told us, ‘Shut your pumps off right now.’ And we said no,” Rick Lemos, a fifth-generation rancher and board member of the Shasta River Water Association, told CalMatters. “You would think they’d get an injunction and shut the pumps off, wouldn’t they?”
Fines can grow to be more than $500 per day only after the water board sends out a cease and desist order, which requires a 20-day waiting period or a hearing. Producers shut their pumps off about three weeks before the fine would have increased to $10,000 a day. “We knew that was coming. That’s why we pumped the water before it happened,” Lemos said.
