Water Flows

Fish Gotta Swim

The water in California's rivers and streams has been over-allocated and over-diverted to the point that natural systems are collapsing. California's rivers and streams have been channeled, diked, diverted and filled despite almost no information on how much water is needed to keep them even minimally healthy. The map below depicts the thousands of barriers throughout the state denying native fish the healthy flows they require (data provided by CalFish). Click on this map to see how dams, diversions, and road crossings contribute to this problem. California's native fish population has suffered as a result of inadequate flows; of California's 116 native fish species, eight have gone extinct, and 15 are threatened or endangered. Despite this, the State Water Board can receive up to hundreds of water rights permit applications each year requesting even more water diversions, changes in existing appropriations, and transfers of existing water rights. The issuance of water rights permits is done with virtually no information on the minimum water levels needed to protect the health of key rivers and streams, including the aquatic life and beneficial uses that they support. 

The failure to incorporate needed water flows into the water rights permit process has hastened the over-appropriation of water from rivers and streams, and resulted in the demise of water-dependent species such as Coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.  Ongoing illegal diversions and barriers, which are rarely enforced against, contribute to this problem. Progress is being made in some areas, however, including the early 2010 agreement on removal of Klamath Dams.

CCKA Is Taking Action

The health of California's waterways depends on both clean water and adequate flows. CCKA is active in both arenas, and works to ensure that the State Water Board and Department of Fish and Game (DFG) fully implement their mandate to ensure healthy flows.  Read about the State Water Board's development of an instream flow policy for North Coast streams, and CCKA's comments on the proposed policy.

In October 2007, CCKA filed suit against the Department of Fish and Game to compel them to implement their legal responsibility to calculate the river and stream flows needed to maintain healthy populations of fish and other aquatic life. Accurate flow information is critical to sound State Water Board decisions on water rights for streams and rivers, yet DFG had not performed required analyses for years. CCKA settled the suit with DFG in April 2008. Among the terms of the agreement include commitments by DFG to:  identify those waterways most in need of specific attention to flows, dedicate staff needed to determine those flows, seek out additional funding as needed, and report annually to the public on its progress in assessing flows and its plans for upcoming assessments. Read DFG’s flow documents and annual Instream Flow Report, a direct result of CCKA’s lawsuit.  CCKA will work with DFG to ensure that these actions result in improved stream flows, particularly in coastal streams critical to salmon populations. CCKA supported funding from the Ocean Protection Council to conduct these instream flows, funding that again arose as a result of CCKA’s work to highlight this issue.  CCKA is also working to advance healthy flows and clean water in California's heavily impacted Bay-Delta Estuary.

CCKA also works with other conservation groups to ensure the State Water Board broadly implements and enforces its water rights authority.  CCKA has testified as to the significant need for increased attention to ensuring the allocation and enforcement of water rights in accordance with all laws established to protect the health of state waterways.  These laws include mandates to prevent the "waste and unreasonable" use of water, an issue on which CCKA recently commented, and to implement the public trust doctrine.  The public trust doctrine requires the state to act as steward over the health of the waterways, which it protects in trust for the people of California.  CCKA continues to advocate for specific strategies to address growing climate change and related water supply issues, including implementation of a recycled water policy that both increases water supply and protects water quality.