Central Coast

100 years of California's water rights system: patterns, trends and uncertainty

Environmental Research Letters (IOP) | August 19th, 2014

For 100 years, California’s State Water Resources Control Board and its predecessors have been responsible for allocating available water supplies to beneficial uses,

For 100 years, California’s State Water Resources Control Board and its predecessors have been responsible for allocating available water supplies to beneficial uses, but inaccurate and incomplete accounting of water rights has made the state ill-equipped to satisfy growing societal demands for water supply reliability and healthy ecosystems. Here, we present the first comprehensive evaluation of appropriative water rights to identify where, and to what extent, water has been dedicated to human uses relative to natural supplies. The results show that water right allocations total 400 billion cubic meters, approximately five times the state’s mean annual runoff. In the state’s major river basins, water rights account for up to 1000% of natural surface water supplies, with the greatest degree of appropriation observed in tributaries to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and in coastal streams in southern California. Comparisons with water supplies and estimates of actual use indicate substantial uncertainty in how water rights are exercised. In arid regions such as California, over-allocation of surface water coupled with trends of decreasing supply suggest that new water demands will be met by re-allocation from existing uses. Without improvements to the water rights system, growing human and environmental demands portend an intensification of regional water scarcity and social conflict. California’s legal framework for managing its water resources is largely compatible with needed reforms, but additional public investment is required to enhance the capacity of the state’s water management institutions to effectively track and regulate water rights.

1969 Floods

Santa Barbara County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (SBCFCWCD) | May 9th, 1969

1995 Floods

Santa Barbara County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (SBCFCWCD) | December 31st, 1995

1998 Flood Report

Santa Barbara County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (SBCFCWCD) | December 31st, 1998

2016 Annual Report of Hydrogeologic Conditions, Water Requirements, Supplies and Disposition Santa Maria Valley Management Area

City of Santa Maria | April 13th, 2017

This annual report of conditions in the Santa Maria Valley Management Area, for calendar year 2016, has been prepared to meet the reporting conditions of the June 30, 20

This annual report of conditions in the Santa Maria Valley Management Area, for calendar year 2016, has been prepared to meet the reporting conditions of the June 30, 2005, Stipulation entered by the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara, in the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin litigation. The Stipulation divided the overall Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin into three management areas, the largest of which overlies the main Santa Maria Valley (the Santa Maria Valley Management Area, or SMVMA) and is the subject of this report. The other two management areas, the Nipomo Mesa Management Area (NMMA) and the Northern Cities Management Area, are addressed in separate annual reports prepared by others. The Stipulation, approved and implemented in 2008, specifies that monitoring shall be sufficient to determine groundwater conditions, land and water uses, sources of water supply, and the disposition of all water supplies in the Basin. Annual Reports for the SMVMA are to summarize the results of the monitoring and include an analysis of the relationship between projected water demand and supply. The Stipulation was preserved in the California Court of Appeal (Sixth Appellate District) Decision of November 21, 2012, and in the Superior Court of the State of California (County of Santa Clara) Final Judgment of April 23, 2014. Thus, the Physical Solution criteria for monitoring and managing groundwater in the basin remain. In accordance with the Stipulation, this report on the SMVMA provides a description of the physical setting and briefly describes previous studies conducted in the groundwater basin, including the long-term monitoring program developed for the SMVMA. As reported herein, the Twitchell Management Authority (TMA) commissioned the preparation of a monitoring program for the SMVMA in 2008, and its complete implementation is expected to provide the data with which to fully assess future conditions. This report describes hydrogeologic conditions in the management area historically and through 2016, including groundwater conditions, Twitchell Reservoir operations, and hydrologic and climatic conditions. As with all previous annual reports (commencing in 2008), the water requirements and supplies for agricultural and municipal uses are accounted, as are the components of water disposition in the SMVMA. Conclusions drawn regarding water resource conditions are discussed, including any finding of severe water shortage, which is concluded to not be the case through 2016. Finally, recommendations are provided with regard to the intra-basin transfer of water from the SMVMA to the NMMA, possible enhancement of groundwater recharge, expanded assessment of water resource conditions, and continued implementation of the monitoring program for the SMVMA. Janny Choi from Stanford University's Water in the West discusses the Santa Maria stipulation in the 2014 paper Before the Well Runs Dry: Improving the Linkage Between Groundwater and Land Use Planning.

2017 Salinas Valley Groundwater Level Contours & Seawater Intrusion Maps

Monterey County Water Resources Agency (MCWRA) | April 24th, 2018

2019 Annual Compliance Report California Drinking Water Program

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | May 1st, 2020

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) Division of Drinking Water (DDW) is the primacy agency responsible for the administration and enforc

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) Division of Drinking Water (DDW) is the primacy agency responsible for the administration and enforcement of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements in California. The State Water Board has adopted statutes and regulations to implement the requirements of the SDWA. The State Water Boards’ regulatory responsibility over public water systems includes (1) issuance of operating permits, (2) conducting inspections and sanitary surveys, (3) monitoring for compliance with regulations, and (4) taking enforcement action to compel compliance when violations are identified. Throughout the year and as part of DDW’s regulatory oversight responsibilities, Drinking Water Program staff from DDW’s 24 District offices and 30 County health departments (delegated by the State Water Board to undertake regulatory oversight on behalf of DDW) document and record violations incurred by public water systems. Enforcement actions are issued by the Drinking Water Program to address these violations. The data is compiled and submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) on a quarterly basis. This report presents an accounting of the violations record for the calendar year 2019. USEPA requires states to issue this Annual Compliance Report by July 1st of each year and make the report available to the public.

2020 Water Resilience Portfolio (draft)

California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) | January 2nd, 2020

2020-2022 Integrated Report For Clean Water Act Sections 303(D) And 305(B)

State of California | February 16th, 2022

2021 Drinking Water Needs Assessment

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | April 9th, 2021

In 2016, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted a Human Right to Water Resolution making the Human Right to Water (HR2W), as defin

In 2016, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted a Human Right to Water Resolution making the Human Right to Water (HR2W), as defined in Assembly Bill 685, a primary consideration and priority across all of the state and regional boards’ programs. The HR2W recognizes that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking and sanitary purposes.”  In 2019, to advance the goals of the HR2W, California passed Senate Bill 200 (SB 200), which enabled the State Water Board to establish the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) Program. SB 200 established a set of tools, funding sources, and regulatory authorities that the State Water Board harnesses through the SAFER Program to help struggling water systems sustainably and affordably provide safe drinking water.  The annual Drinking Water Needs Assessment (Needs Assessment) required to be carried out by the SAFER Program provides foundational information and recommendations to guide this work. The Needs Assessment is comprised of Risk Assessment, Affordability Assessment, and Cost Assessment components. Development of the Needs Assessment consisted of stages between September 2019 and March 2021, each of which were detailed in publicly-available white papers and presented at public webinars. The public feedback was incorporated into the final methodology and results.