Additional water restrictions are coming to California, affecting more than 3,500 water rights holders. On Aug. 17, the State Water Resources Control Board approved an emergency curtailment regulation to maintain water flows for the Scott and Shasta rivers. The board said the action is to “protect fish, ensure supplies for human health and livestock needs and encourage voluntary efforts that may be used in lieu of curtailments.”
Before the curtailment orders are issued, the Office of Administrative Law must approve the regulation, and it must be filed with the secretary of state. The water curtailments will then remain in place into the next water year, beginning Oct. 1, unless the state’s drought declaration is lifted.
The Scott and Shasta rivers are tributaries to the Klamath River in Siskiyou County and not only supply water for agriculture, but also domestic users, the environment, fire protection, municipalities, Tribal nations and recreation, according to the State Water Board.
The board also highlighted the rivers are essential for the coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. For the second consecutive year, dry conditions are endangering the baby and juvenile coho that emerge from gravel and rely on seasonal river flows, according to the board.
“Temporarily halting diversions will leave more water instream to meet minimum human health and safety and livestock needs and improve habitat and migratory conditions for imperiled coho salmon,” the water board said in a statement.
“It will also protect steelhead trout, a federal fish species of concern, and fall-run Chinook salmon that provide a valuable resource for commercial, tribal and recreational fisheries.”
E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Board, said there are no quick, easy fixes to improving watershed conditions. “Along with threatened fish species, tribes, farms, ranchers and towns are facing unprecedented conditions due to a second year of dry conditions,” he said in a statement.
“We need to work together to address these challenges and maintain momentum on long-term solutions as we confront the harsh realities of the ongoing climate crisis.”
Ryan Walker, president of the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau, told the California Farm Bureau’s (CFB) AgAlert that the water board was balanced in making its decision.
“To the board’s credit, they understood that they were doing this in a very short time frame and put in placeholders, even for the underlying flow requirements to be negotiated and certainly for the voluntary agreements to be negotiated on an ad hoc basis,” he said.
The new regulation will affect those who divert surface and groundwater based on the water right priority system and affects junior water rights holders first, according to CFB. Walker also said producers who divert surface water will have to make some difficult decisions, as there is not much guarantee to receive water.
“You have to decide: Do I feed cows through the winter and then hope I have water? Do I sell cows now? Do I plant grain and hope for rain to bring it up instead of alfalfa? Do I fallow ground now and try to preserve what pastures I can?”
Previous measures
California’s severe drought has caused a series of strict measures to be taken this summer regarding water use and flows. In mid-May, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) expanded a drought proclamation to cover the Klamath River watershed, including the Scott and Shasta rivers. On July 8, Newsom expanded the order to cover 50 of 58 counties and asked citizens to reduce water usage by 15 percent.
The order directed the State Water Board and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to evaluate minimum instream flows and other actions to protect fish species. If voluntary actions are insufficient, the board and department have the authority to establish minimum drought instream flows.
On June 15, the board received a letter from CDFW that emphasized the importance of water flows for coho and Chinook salmon and recommended emergency minimum flows for the Scott and Shasta rivers for the next year. In response, the staff released an informal draft emergency regulation on July 16 and solicited comments through July 23.
After reviewing more than 100 comments, the board revised the regulation to include flexibility for voluntary approaches to local solutions, the ability for the CDFW and the National Marine Fisheries Service to update minimum instream flows if lower flows will protect fisheries, and an exception for water use associated with restoration efforts, according to the board.
In addition to the Klamath watershed, the state recently announced water curtailments for about 4,500 water rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
For current information on drought information and water updates, visit waterboards.ca.gov/drought.— Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
