Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Scarcity: The Challenges of Water and Environmental Management in the Delta and Beyond
2 Scarcity: The Challenges of Water and Environmental Management in the Delta and Beyond
Pages 35-56
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From page 35... ...
These include the reality that water is scarce; the many biological and physical changes that have occurred in the delta; the presence of many policy and legal directives that have independent and conflicting objectives; and the inherent uncertainty regarding future socioeconomic, climate, biological, and other changes, and our consequent inability to plan for them in a comprehensive manner. In this chapter, we discuss these challenges, but because the historical context is critical to understanding the challenges, we begin with it.
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From page 36... ...
Because water rights are of theoretically infinite duration, many senior irrigators in California could argue that they hold more secure water rights than later-initiated uses, such as the application of water for the protection of the natural environment. Recent court decisions, combined with the state constitution, the developing public trust doctrine, and legislation have combined to create in practice a more rational method of allocation.
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From page 37... ...
, which served agricultural users in the San Joaquin valley and urban users in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the South Coast basin (Hundley 2001)
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From page 38... ...
Agricultural reuse that entails recycling of surface runoff from irrigation is also found with increasing frequency. There has been little recognition in recent and current planning for the delta that water is a scarce resource and that modern management plans should be tailored to manage scarcity (NRC 2011)
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From page 39... ...
The failure of plans for water management in the delta to acknowledge scarcity has greatly hindered the ability of agencies to craft and implement water plans and policies that will be widely accepted. The management of delta water by court decisions reflects in part the lack of adequate water resource planning that takes scarcity into account.
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From page 40... ...
The California Water Code simply required the State Water Resources Control Board to determine that the "supply of water in the stream system is being fully applied to beneficial uses" and that "no water remains available for appropriation." Under limited circumstances the board may continue to grant water rights, even if the source is fully appropriated. Indeed, some degree of overappropriation is common in the western states.
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From page 41... ...
In 2009, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act required the State Water Board to develop new "flow criteria" to protect public trust resources of the delta ecosystem (Cal. Water Code § 85086)
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From page 42... ...
pointed out, major urban water users are required by the 2009 legislative package to reduce 2 "The policy of the State of California is to reduce reliance on the Delta in meeting Califor nia's future water supply needs through a statewide strategy of investing in improved regional supplies, conservation, and water use efficiency. Each region that depends on water from the Delta watershed shall improve its regional self-reliance for water through investment in water use efficiency, water recycling, advanced water technologies, local and regional water supply projects, and improved regional coordination of local and regional water supply efforts" (Cal.
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From page 43... ...
Background documents and the goal in legislation of reducing reliance on delta water implicitly acknowledge water scarcity, but the details need to be addressed, clarified, and made specific, because they are at the heart of the planning process. Only when the goals are made specific and operational will the trade-offs required become apparent, and the trade-offs will require policy judgments about priorities, acceptable risks, and acceptable costs.
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From page 44... ...
In addition, regulatory improvements and principles are needed to ensure more robust, comprehensive, and accountable planning. They include application of constitutional provisions and the public trust doctrine, more comprehensive water conservation, inclusion of groundwater in statewide planning, and formalizing a long-term water-market system.
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From page 45... ...
Although they do not include an actual scarcity value for water, many California water utilities such as the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Marin Municipal Water District use increasing block rates (higher prices at higher use rates) in an effort to mimic marginal cost pricing.
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From page 46... ...
They can be protected in several ways, including making administrative allocations of water to service environmental uses, taxing water trades and water consumption, and the use of environmental water accounts. [See Booher and Innes (2010)
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From page 47... ...
, the State Water Resources Control Board restricted use of Russian River water for the purpose of frost protection and ruled that diversion outside their demand management program was an unreasonable use of the water (SWRCB 2011)
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From page 48... ...
First, before approving an application for water rights, the Water Board must determine that the proposed use will be reasonable and beneficial (Central Delta Water Agency v. State Water Resources Control Board, 2004)
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From page 49... ...
. Instead, the legislature required agricultural water users to implement "efficient water management practices by July 31, 2012," but generally limited them to measures that are "locally cost effective and technically feasible" (Water Code 10608.48, 2009)
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From page 50... ...
v. State Water Resources Control Board, 43 Cal.
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From page 51... ...
There are different types of water markets. There are markets in water rights in which the right to use some specified amount of water in perpetuity is exchanged.
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From page 52... ...
Moreover, almost every type of water exchange has the potential to impose adverse impacts on third parties other than the buyer or the seller. For transfers in excess of 1 year, the California Water Resources Control Board provides public notice and opportunity for comments and evaluates petitions for transfer to ensure that they "would not result in substantial injury to any legal use of water and would not unreasonably affect fish, wildlife or other instream beneficial uses (Cal.
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From page 53... ...
2008. More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California.
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From page 54... ...
2008. Stationarity is dead: Whither water management.
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From page 55... ...
2008. Water Rights within the Bay/Delta Watershed State Water Resources Control Board.
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