State must cancel San Joaquin’s application to claim water from the Lower American River
When the Water Forum Agreement was signed over 20 years ago, the occasion marked an unprecedented show of regional cooperation and an end to the water wars that had plagued the Sacramento region for decades. For years, business interests, environmentalists, water suppliers and others had sparred over the water needs of people vs. the environment. At the center of this conflict was the lower American River.
Now, a decades-old application by San Joaquin County is threatening to ignite a new era of water conflict by petitioning California to take 147,000-acre feet of water from the American River — an amount of water equal to 15% of Folsom Lake when full.
As we are painfully aware, Folsom Lake is nowhere near full, raising more urgent concerns about how San Joaquin’s application, if approved, could threaten supplies in times of drought.
Over 30 years ago, San Joaquin County began the legal process to obtain water from the American River by filing a water right application with the state. The application has changed several times, but each new iteration was still missing a clear understanding of how the Sacramento region’s water system works.
The initial application was largely predicated on water that would have been stored behind the Auburn Dam. Times have changed since then. Hydrology has also changed. Most of all, the way that water stakeholders work together has changed.
San Joaquin officials are required to show “due diligence” in their application, which means they have to show good faith efforts to move their application forward. They are also required to work with the many stakeholders who filed protests in an effort to address their concerns.
Unfortunately, San Joaquin County has made little to no effort to meet and confer with these entities or understand how this proposal would fit within the existing water system. Three decades have gone by, more than enough time to make these efforts. Even worse, San Joaquin’s application would allow it to leapfrog the water rights of our local water providers.
This isolationist approach is in direct conflict with the Water Forum’s collaborative model — the hallmark of 21st century water management, both within our region and beyond.
As a region, we have developed trust-based relationships with our local, state and federal water partners to protect the lower American River, build water diversion and treatment plants and protect water rights. The Freeport Regional Water Authority intake and pipeline, the North Basin groundwater recharge program, the lower American River Flow Standard and numerous American River habitat restoration projects are all illustrations of what can be accomplished through a collaborative model.
This is hard work — it involves meticulous attention to facts, a commitment to building and maintaining trust and a clear focus on avoiding unintended consequences.
As this region works through the Water Forum Agreement to address the more frequent and intense droughts projected to come with climate change, the San Joaquin application is simply an unwarranted water grab that poses an immediate threat to our limited water supplies and environmental conditions for natural habitat.
We urge the State Water Resources Control Board to cancel San Joaquin County’s water right application outright when it comes up for consideration on September 29. This decisive action would demonstrate that state regulators expect nothing less than collaborative efforts to protect our precious and scarce water resources.