2.3 Water Rights & California Water Resources

California Water Rights & Water Resources Management

Water supply in California is defined by severe geographic and hydrologic disparity: approximately 75 percent of the state's natural runoff originates north of Sacramento, while 80 percent of the agricultural and urban water demand is located in the Central Valley and Southern California. Managing this imbalance has produced a sophisticated system of surface water rights, groundwater legislation, inter-basin conveyance infrastructure, and drought contingency frameworks.

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California's Dual Surface Water Rights System

Unlike most western states that operate purely under the doctrine of prior appropriation, California maintains a unique dual system of water rights that recognizes both riparian rights (derived from English Common Law) and appropriative rights (derived from California Gold Rush customs), affirmed in the landmark California Supreme Court decision Lux v. Haggin (1886).

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|                                 CALIFORNIA WATER RIGHTS HIERARCHY                                       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                                                         |
|   1. PUEBLO RIGHTS           ==> Highest priority municipal rights (Los Angeles, San Diego)             |
|                                  Expands automatically with municipal population growth                 |
|                                                                                                         |
|   2. RIPARIAN RIGHTS         ==> Land touching natural watercourse; correlative sharing in shortage     |
|                                  No seasonal storage (>30 days); cannot transfer out of watershed       |
|                                                                                                         |
|   3. PRE-1914 APPROPRIATIVE  ==> Established prior to Dec 19, 1914; senior priority by diversion date   |
|                                  Forfeited after 5 consecutive years of non-use                         |
|                                                                                                         |
|   4. POST-1914 APPROPRIATIVE ==> Governed by SWRCB permit/license; junior to pre-1914 rights            |
|                                  Strict 'First in time, first in right'; 5-year forfeiture rule         |
|                                                                                                         |
|   5. PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS     ==> Acquired by 5 years continuous adverse, hostile, notorious use         |
|                                  (Adjudicated groundwater basins)                                       |
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1. Riparian Rights

• Land Attachment: Riparian rights are inherent to the ownership of real property contiguous (physically touching) to a natural surface watercourse (river, stream, or natural lake) within the watershed.
• No State Permit: Riparian rights do not require a permit from the SWRCB (although riparians must file annual Statements of Water Diversion and Use).
• Correlative Sharing: During drought or supply shortage, all riparian users on a watercourse share the available natural flow correlatively (proportionally) based on reasonable needs. There is no senior or junior priority among riparians.
• Legal Limitations:
  • Water must be used only on the riparian parcel within the original watershed.
  • Water cannot be diverted and transported outside the watershed.
  • No Seasonal Storage: Riparians cannot store water for more than 30 days (storing wet-season runoff for dry-season use is an appropriative right, not riparian).
  • Non-Forfeiture: Riparian rights are not lost through non-use.

2. Appropriative Rights

• Principle of Prior Appropriation: Governed by the doctrine "first in time, first in right." In times of shortage, the most senior appropriator receives 100 percent of their permitted allocation before junior appropriators receive any water.
• Pre-1914 Appropriative Rights: Appropriative diversions initiated prior to December 19, 1914 (the effective date of the California Water Commission Act). These rights were established simply by diverting water and putting it to beneficial use with public notice. They do not require an SWRCB permit, have senior priority over post-1914 rights, but can be lost by non-use.
• Post-1914 Appropriative Rights: Diversions initiated after December 19, 1914, require a formal permit and license from the SWRCB. The SWRCB evaluates water availability, environmental impacts, and public trust resources before issuing permits.
• The 5-Year Forfeiture Rule: An appropriative right (pre- or post-1914) is subject to forfeiture if the water is not put to beneficial use for five (5) consecutive years ("use it or lose it").

3. Prescriptive & Pueblo Rights

• Prescriptive Rights: Acquired by diverting water openly, notoriously, under a claim of right, hostile and adverse to a senior right holder, continuously for a statutory period of 5 years. Since 1914, surface water prescriptive rights cannot be initiated against the state without an SWRCB permit, but prescriptive rights are common in court-adjudicated groundwater basins.
• Pueblo Rights: Granted to Spanish and Mexican pueblos before California statehood (e.g., City of Los Angeles on the Los Angeles River and City of San Diego on the San Diego River). Pueblo rights are superior to all riparian and appropriative rights and automatically expand to supply all reasonable municipal needs of the growing population.

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Constitutional Mandate: Reasonable & Beneficial Use

In 1928, California voters amended the state constitution to establish Article X, Section 2, which serves as the supreme legal doctrine governing all water use in California:

• All water resources of the State must be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent possible.
• Waste, unreasonable use, or unreasonable methods of diversion are strictly prohibited.
• No water user—regardless of whether they hold riparian, pre-1914, or appropriative rights—holds a property right to waste water or divert it in an unreasonable manner.

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Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014

Groundwater accounts for 40 percent of California's total water supply in normal years and up to 60 percent or more during severe droughts. Decades of unmanaged overdraft caused dry domestic wells, degraded water quality, and severe land subsidence that cracked canals and damaged infrastructure. In response, California enacted the historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in September 2014 (Water Code § 10720 et seq.).

Core SGMA Institutional Framework

1. Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs): Local public agencies (water districts, cities, counties) formed in medium- and high-priority groundwater basins to assume local governance.
2. Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs): Detailed, 20-year technical roadmaps developed by GSAs with measurable objectives and 5-year interim milestones designed to achieve basin sustainability within 20 years (by 2040 for critically overdrafted basins; 2042 for others).
3. State Backstop Enforcement: If local agencies fail to form a GSA, fail to submit an adequate GSP, or fail to implement sustainability, the SWRCB steps in to designate the basin as "probationary" and directly impose pumping fees, meter mandates, and extraction limits.

The Six "Undesirable Results" (Sustainability Indicators)

SGMA defines sustainability as the management and use of groundwater without causing any of the six statutorily defined "undesirable results":

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Statewide Conveyance, Delta Governance & Drought Planning

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta & The Delta Reform Act

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta is the physical hub of California's water distribution grid, where the State Water Project (SWP) and federal Central Valley Project (CVP) divert water via massive pumping plants (Banks and Jones Pumping Plants) into the California Aqueduct and Delta-Mendota Canal.

The Delta Reform Act of 2009 established the Delta Stewardship Council and enacted Water Code § 85054, codifying the "Coequal Goals":

1. Providing a more reliable water supply for California; and
2. Protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. These goals must be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, and agricultural values of the Delta.

Water Shortage Contingency Planning (UWMP Act)

The Urban Water Management Planning Act (UWMPA) requires all urban water suppliers with >= 3,000 service connections or supplying >= 3,000 acre-feet per year to update their Urban Water Management Plans every 5 years. A mandatory element is the Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP), which standardizes utility response across six predefined shortage levels:

• Level 1: Up to 10% shortage (voluntary public conservation awareness).
• Level 2: 10% to 20% shortage (mandatory outdoor watering day restrictions, ban on washing driveways).
• Level 3: 20% to 30% shortage (limits on irrigation duration, drought surcharges).
• Level 4: 30% to 40% shortage (ban on filling swimming pools, strict commercial use restrictions).
• Level 5: 40% to 50% shortage (moratorium on new service connections, tiered punitive allocations).
• Level 6: Greater than 50% shortage (emergency rationing, public health and safety water allocations only).