Efficient Water Use in California: Water Rights, Water Districts, and Water Transfers

Rand Corporation (Rand) | November 13th, 1978

Estuary News, April 1998

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | April 15th, 1998

Estuary News, December 1995

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | December 15th, 1995

Estuary News, June 1998

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | June 15th, 1998

French Creek Flow Accounting Study

Scott River Water Trust | May 15th, 2020

The Scott River Water Trust (SRWT) has been working with adjudicated water-users in Scott Valley since 2007 to develop opportunities for stream flow enhancement through t

The Scott River Water Trust (SRWT) has been working with adjudicated water-users in Scott Valley since 2007 to develop opportunities for stream flow enhancement through temporary leases or long-term/permanent dedications of surface water rights. Under the seasonal Water Leasing Program, the SRWT contracts with voluntary agricultural producers to temporarily forbear all or part of their decreed water right(s) during the irrigation season in exchange for fair financial compensation. The purpose of the seasonal Water Leasing Program is to improve conditions for anadromous fish in priority stream reaches during critical life stages and time periods. The Siskiyou Resource Conservation District (SRCD) has been integrally involved with implementation of the seasonal Water Leasing Program since its inception and particularly with the monitoring component. Monitoring of seasonal transactions is generally limited to ensuring compliance with the lease terms and confirming stream response. However, in 2016 the SRWT proposed expanding the scope of effectiveness monitoring associated with the Water Leasing Program based on suggestions from Andrew Purkey and Rankin Holmes of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and their experience monitoring transactions in the Columbia River Basin (Holmes, et al., 2013). Under funding from the California Flow Restoration Accounting Fund managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the SRWT contracted with the SRCD to explore several additional effectiveness monitoring techniques on French Creek including instream water level/discharge monitoring, wetted- perimeter analysis and alluvial connectivity surveillance. The purpose of this additional monitoring was to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of these techniques to stream flow enhancement in Scott Valley and determine whether it would make sense for the SRWT adopt these practices into its programs. The specific components and objectives of the work completed on French Creek included: • Evaluate the instream effect of forbearance agreements performed by SRWT • Establish and maintain monitoring stations throughout French Creek to determine the downstream extent that returned water from various leases had on stream flow and temperature • Perform wetted perimeter analysis on French Creek to develop a relationship between instream flows and aquatic habitat conditions • Conduct periodic fisheries surveys through French Creek to evaluate the relative abundance of salmonids influenced by the transactions • Conduct periodic foot surveys through lower French Creek to establish the temporal and spatial connectivity to the Scott River This report summarizes the monitoring and analysis conducted by the SRCD during the 2018 and 2019 water leasing seasons under the French Creek Flow Accounting Study and provides conclusions related to the applicability of these methods to the SRWT.

Goal-based water trading expands and diversifies supplies for enhanced resilience

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | February 11th, 2019

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to valu

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to value and reuse every drop throughout the water cycle. This transition is creating new hybrid infrastructure systems that combine centralized and decentralized sources at various scales. To help strategize and manage these emerging hybrid systems, we introduce a flexible goal-based water-trading framework using a combination of regulatory and market incentives. We apply this framework in a simulation of the San Francisco Bay Area, and test the effects of policy parameters, local preferences and collaboration between utilities. Results show that the option of engaging in an open trading scheme can lead to a more strategic and holistic path to higher regional resiliency through increased diversity in water portfolios, at lower costs than if utilities were tasked with pursuing goals independently. Highest benefits are observed when utilities cooperate in the exchange of information, which highlights the importance of transparency and trust operating in conjunction with regulatory and market forces.

Goal-based water trading expands and diversifies supplies for enhanced resilience

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | February 11th, 2019

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to valu

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to value and reuse every drop throughout the water cycle. This transition is creating new hybrid infrastructure systems that combine centralized and decentralized sources at various scales. To help strategize and manage these emerging hybrid systems, we introduce a flexible goal-based water-trading framework using a combination of regulatory and market incentives. We apply this framework in a simulation of the San Francisco Bay Area, and test the effects of policy parameters, local preferences and collaboration between utilities. Results show that the option of engaging in an open trading scheme can lead to a more strategic and holistic path to higher regional resiliency through increased diversity in water portfolios, at lower costs than if utilities were tasked with pursuing goals independently. Highest benefits are observed when utilities cooperate in the exchange of information, which highlights the importance of transparency and trust operating in conjunction with regulatory and market forces.

Groundwater Exchange Pools and Urban Water Supply Sustainability: Modeling Directed and Undirected Networks

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) | August 1st, 2018

Groundwater basins are important sources of water supply and storage for many cities. Groundwater exchange pools offer additional opportunities for utilizing these

Groundwater basins are important sources of water supply and storage for many cities. Groundwater exchange pools offer additional opportunities for utilizing these common pool resources, but their potential role in urban water management is not clear, and modeling such exchanges can be challenging. This paper presents an analysis of the potential for groundwater basin exchange pools to contribute to urban water supply sustainability. Building on an existing model of urban water management in Los Angeles, the analysis assesses the potential for groundwater exchange pools to reduce scarcity and demonstrates a method for modeling two-way (undirected) flows within a directed-network model using linear programming. Results indicate that exchange pools can help alleviate shortages from operational changes (reduced imported water) in Los Angeles, but providing more parties with access to storage improves their effectiveness. Exchange pools could potentially provide 6–12% of total supplies and reduce shortages as much as 86%. Considerations for organizing exchange pools are discussed to explore policy implications for managing common pool resources. The analytical method for embedding undirected network flows within a larger directed-network model has wide applicability for water resource systems analysis applications, including modeling water markets and interbasin transfers. * U.C. Davis hosts a discussion of the content by the authors at California Water Blog. 

Groundwater Trading as a Tool for Implementing California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) | December 8th, 2017

Until recently, the State of California lacked comprehensive groundwater management policy. While many basins havebeen adjudicated in court or have adopted voluntary grou

Until recently, the State of California lacked comprehensive groundwater management policy. While many basins havebeen adjudicated in court or have adopted voluntary groundwater management programs following Assembly Bill 3030 and Senate Bill 1938, the vast majority of groundwater use remained unregulated. In 2014, the State Legislature passed the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in response to wide-ranging consequences of prolonged and unchecked groundwater pumping. While groundwater serves as an important primary and supplemental water supply for many water users, over-pumping can result in negative consequences, six of which are listed as “undesirable results” under SGMA: chronic aquifer overdraft, reduction of groundwater storage, seawater intrusion, degradation of water quality, land subsidence, and depletion of hydrologically connected surface water. SGMA requires local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to develop and implement Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to manage groundwater to avoid such consequences. To meet the requirements of SGMA, GSAs will need to employ a wide range of management tools. This paper focuses on one set of these tools: groundwater trading programs. Trading goes by many different names, including markets, cap and trade, transfers, credit programs, banking, pooling, and exchanges. For the purposes of this paper, we have elected to use the terms “trading” and “trading programs” as the broader categorization of incentive-based management tools. Trading can be executed through a wide range of exchange vehicles, including short- and long-term leases, permanent transfers, and other more advanced or unique arrangements, such as inter-annual water exchanges or dry-year options contracts.

How are Western water districts managing groundwater basins?

California Agriculture (UCANR) | March 13th, 2018

Making the transition from open-access groundwater rights to sustainable groundwater management is a formidable task for newly formed groundwater sustainability age

Making the transition from open-access groundwater rights to sustainable groundwater management is a formidable task for newly formed groundwater sustainability agencies in California. As agencies begin to decide how to make equitable water allocations, how to monitor groundwater use and what mix of supply- and demand-side mechanisms to adopt to satisfy sustainability criteria, the groundwater management strategies in place across other basins in the western United States are worth studying. We surveyed 18 groundwater districts in California and other Western states to identify the management approaches and practices they have instituted. The conclusions we draw suggest a correlative rights framework of water allocation with phase-ins for heavy users; metered pumping; flexible arrangements for trading and carrying over allocations for multiple years; and incentivizing groundwater recharge, including recharge from deep percolation from crops. Rigid formulas for significantly reducing groundwater use in medium- and high-priority basins are likely to have significant negative effects on the regional economy.