California’s inability to prevent illegal and wasteful use of its water supply is more annoying than a leaky faucet. And far more costly.
When water is illegally diverted, it severely reduces the amount available to urban and agricultural users throughout the state. But the state Water Resources Control Board lacks the tools needed to enforce water rights and protect the limited supply.
The process for stopping illegal diversions can take weeks. And when the state does finally step in, the fines it levies are insufficient to act as a deterrent. It’s the equivalent of a police officer catching someone speeding and sending a letter to the speeder saying, if you don’t slow down in the next 20 days, we’ll hit you with a fine for the cost of a gallon of gas.
Two bills introduced into the Legislature would help solve the problem. Assembly Bill 460, introduced by Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, and Assembly Bill 1337, introduced by Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would empower the state Water Resources Control Board to act more promptly to stop illegal water practices.
AB 460 gives the board the power to issue fines of up to $10,000 per day for violations, up from the current $500 a day, and additional amounts for water that is illegally diverted.
AB 1337 expands the board’s enforcement authority and gives it the ability to order a timely curtailment of illegal diversions. The current state code requires a 20-day waiting period or a hearing before any fines are implemented.
The problem stems from the state’s water-rights system, which dates back to the Gold Rush. California has more than 40,000 water-rights holders who in most years have claims that total far more than the available supply. Every summer sees those holding rights to water they can’t access demanding more. When they can’t get enough to irrigate crops or feed livestock, farmers and ranchers too often succumb to the temptation to illegally divert water.
A blatant example occurred last August in the midst of what was the worst drought in the state’s recorded history.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Siskiyou County rancher Jim Scala and his neighbors were watching their grazing pastures dry up after being told by the state that their access to Shasta River water was being curtailed. So Scala and his neighbors flouted state regulators, opening the river’s irrigation gates for eight days, causing a two-thirds drop in the river flows near Yreka. The resulting fine of $4,000 on Siskiyou County ranchers was called “laughable,” with good reason. It amounted to about $50 per rancher.
The bills are not just about protecting the environment and the fish and wildlife that require sufficient flows to survive. It’s also about protecting downstream rights holders’ access to water.
The bills are expected to face heavy opposition from senior water-rights holders, especially the estimated 35% of those who obtained their entitlements before 1914 when the state board was formed. They have long maintained they shouldn’t be subject to the state’s water curtailments.
AB 460 and AB 1337 will be heard Tuesday by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. The sooner they become law, the better.
