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 are channeled, diked, diverted and filled despite almost no information on how much water is needed to keep them even minimally healthy. California's native fish population has suffered as a result; of California's 116 native fish, eight have gone extinct and 15 are threatened or endangered. Despite this, the State Water Board still receives 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.

CCKA Takes Action

The health of California's waterways depends on both clean water and adequate flows. CCKA is active in both arenas, including ensuring that the State Water Board and Department of Fish and Game fully implement their mandate to ensure healthy flows. CCKA works with other conservation groups to ensure the State Water Board implements and enforces its water rights authority, and has testified as to the significant need for increased staffing to ensure allocation of water rights that protects the health of state waterways. 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, at: www.waterrights.ca.gov/HTML/instreamflow_nccs.html. 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, to dedicate staff needed to determine those flows, to seek out additional funding as needed, and to report annually to the public on its progress in assessing flows and its plans for upcoming assessments. CCKA will work with DFG to ensure that these actions result in improved stream flows, particularly in coastal streams critical to salmon populations.

Related to its work on stream flows, CCKA continues to work to ensure that the State Water Board implements specific strategies that will begin to address growing climate change and related water supply issues. This includes implementation of a recycled water policy that both increases water supply and protects water quality.

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