Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

The Bureau of Reclamation on December 30 announced the availability for public review and comment a draft Environmental Assessment concerning an agreement to supply water to Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Colusa Generating Station. Under the agreement, a maximum of 180 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water would be supplied per year for up to 30 years.

Under the proposed agreement, the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District would annually transfer Project water to the County of Colusa; the Holthouse Water District would transfer Project water to the County; and the County would supply Project water to the CGS. Water deliveries under the proposed transfers to the County, Holthouse, and the CGS would be through the Tehama-Colusa Canal using existing turnouts.

On the heels of early season storms, manual and electronic readings today indicate that water content in California’s mountain snowpack is 198 percent of normal for the date.

“This boosts our hopes that we will have an adequate water supply for our cities and farms as we continue to shake off effects of the 2007-2009 drought,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin.

Before the new readings, DWR estimated that it would be able to deliver 50 percent of requested State Water Project water in 2011. The early projection equals the amount delivered this year, and is all-but-certain to increase as hydrologic conditions continue to develop. The final amount delivered to 25 million Californians and nearly a million irrigated acres of farmland will largely depend on weather between now and spring. Deliveries were 60 percent of requests in 2007, 35 percent in 2008, 40 percent in 2009, and will total 50 percent of the 4,172,126 acrefeet requested this year. The last 100 percent allocation — difficult to achieve even in wet years because of pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish — was in 2006.

Most of the state’s major reservoirs — bolstered by early rains with the spring snowmelt still to come — are near or above normal storage levels for the date. Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal reservoir, is at 95 percent of normal, holding 2,099,731 acre-feet. Lake Shasta north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) largest reservoir, is at 119 percent of normal, holding 3,421,013 acre-feet. The CVP’s Folsom Lake near Sacramento is at 90 percent of normal, holding 428,933 acre-feet.

Lake Oroville, heavily dependent on the spring and summer snowmelt, last filled to its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity in the summer of 2003.

A 2009 comprehensive model of the Ozark Plateau aquifer system shows that more groundwater is available for use without compromising the long-range water supply.

“Based on what we learned from the model developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, it appears the supply can support about three times the amount of water that’s currently authorized for use and still meet safe yield standards,” said David Barfield, chief engineer of the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s division of water resources. “Because of this, I will rescind the water rights moratorium that’s been in place for the aquifer since 2004.”

Safe yield for the area is defined as the use that can be sustained without reducing storage in the aquifer by more than 25 percent over the next 100 years. The division of water resources calculates safe yield at 36,000 acre-feet, about three times more than is currently authorized.

Safe yield was determined using a comprehensive model of the aquifer system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and MODFLOW software to analyze the effects of increased groundwater use on the long-term availability of groundwater in an area that includes southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma.

“The model was extremely useful to answer our concerns about the quantity and quality of groundwater in this aquifer system,” Barfield said. “Based on the model results, there is clearly sufficient water available to allow the moratorium term permits that have been in place since 2004 to become regular water appropriation permits and to re-open the area to new appropriations.”

The area will be opened through a regulation to be developed in 2011.

Concerns about the quantity and quality of groundwater in the aquifer system prompted the chief engineer to designate a moratorium area in 2004 on new groundwater appropriations from the system. The moratorium exempted certain minor uses and allowed moratorium term permits from the Ozark Plateau aquifer until further studies could be completed.

The Ozark Plateau aquifer system is an important water source for southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and a small part of northwest Arkansas. The system consists of two aquifers that have a discontinuous confining unit. The upper aquifer is the Springfield Plateau aquifer; the lower is the Ozark aquifer.

The Six Mile Canal has been in place and diverting Platte River water since 1894, withdrawing an average of 2,377 acre-feet of water annually. After 116 years of use, the more than 30 landowners and farmers along the canal are eager to convert their land to groundwater use. (Photo/Central Platte Natural Resources District)

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The CPNRD partnered with nearly 30 landowners – working with county and state government agencies – to complete an ongoing effort to close and fill the irrigation canal that was built by the Six Mile Canal Company in 1894 and was used to deliver water to irrigate area crops. The NRD has negotiated a buyout of water rights owned by land owners who were serviced by the Six Mile Canal Company as part of its efforts to increase Platte River flows to levels required under the three-state Platte River Recovery Program and state law.

“This project allows us to return water to the river which will help protect endangered species, make irrigation more efficient for farmers, put more land into crop production and improve public safety,” said Ron Bishop, General Manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District. “This is a win-win situation for everyone involved, from the farmers and land owners, to the State Department of Roads, to the County and for the NRD,” Bishop said.

“We don’t farm with horses anymore. With the surface water system, we had to be at the fields several times each day, which increased fuel and labor cost,” said Roger Wahlgren, a Six Mile Canal Board Member. “I can now irrigate with a touch of button on my cell phone which can turn my pivot on or off and saves me time and labor. By doing this project, it has eliminated short crop rows and probably increased the value of land where the canal used to be by $500 an acre. Now we can leave the water in the river for future uses and save $15 an acre per year in fees for canal operations and maintenance. The CPNRD has been a godsend to work with. They bent over backwards to do what we needed and helped out a lot with engineering and legal issues. Without the NRD spearheading this project and providing ongoing support at every step along the way, this project never would have happened,” Wahlgren said.

More than 116 years ago, farming with a team of horse and irrigation from surface water canals was considered “new” technology. In modern agriculture, tractors with GPS systems are much more efficient than horses and groundwater irrigation is much more efficient than ditch irrigation, however, thousands of acres of land have been legally bound to the ditch irrigation system for decades. The CPNRD worked with land owners, County government and banks to release the land from the ditch irrigation legal ties.

Now farmers can take advantage of new technology such as using cell phones to operate pivots and to check fields. One benefit of the project is that farmers can use new technology that makes irrigation more efficient and help protect groundwater, such as using cell phones to operate pivots and to check fields; while returning canal water back to the river for future uses.

At its peak the canal served irrigation water to approximately 1,700 acres and multiple landowners. Land previously served by the canal will now be served by more efficient groundwater irrigation and the water is being purchased by CPNRD through the NRD’s Water Banking Program. Central Platte NRD started their Water Bank as a solution to balance water that is available with current water uses. There were two major programs that required the NRD to find a solution, including the Platte River Recovery Program (PRRIP) and Legislative Bill 962. The Six Mile irrigation canal had been in place and diverting Platte River water since 1894, withdrawing an average of 2,377 acre-feet of water annually.

The Six Mile Canal service area was ineligible to participate in the Water Bank because the surface water right could be transferred. With the closure of the Six Mile Canal, the associated State water right to divert natural flow from the Platte River will be relinquished, making the irrigated acres in the service area eligible for the CPNRD water banking program.

The Platte River Recovery Program is a federal agreement between Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and the Department of Interior; with the goal to protect endangered species.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., joined Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in December to sign the San Juan Navajo Water Rights Settlement, which is expected to bring a $1 billion water project to the Navajo Nation.

“By signing this agreement today, the Obama administration is taking another step toward honoring the U.S.’s promises to Indian nations and helping communities gain access to clean, safe water supplies,” Salazar said December 17 at the Colorado River Water Users Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. “This settlement
honorably closes a long chapter of litigation and will bring real
benefits to the Navajo people and surrounding communities.”

The San Juan Navajo Water Rights Settlement resolves more than 20
years of efforts to resolve the Navajo Nation’s water rights, protect existing uses of water, allow for future growth, and provide potable water for 80,000 Navajos for the first time.

Navajo Nation Water Rights Attorney Stanley Pollack, who has worked on the settlement for 24 years as a lawyer for the Nation, called the settlement the biggest accomplishment of his professional career.

“But it’s just another step in the long road we have to go to get Navajos drinking water,” he said. “We are now on our way toward implementation of the settlement which quantifies the rights of the Navajo Nation to the San Juan River and brings drinking water to the Navajo Nation through the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.”

The Navajo Nation first signed the agreement with the State of New Mexico on April 19, 2005. The signing in December fulfills a federal promise to support the Navajo people by providing a long-term sustainable water supply that will reduce the need for hauling water, improve health conditions on the reservation, and provide the foundation for future economic development in northwestern New Mexico.

A permanent water management rule to manage Upper Kittitas County groundwater was signed today by state Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant while work continues on approval of water connections that support local economic development.

The rule allows new groundwater withdrawals in the upper county only if they are mitigated (backed by senior water rights), and will remain in place at least until a groundwater study commissioned with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is completed by September 2013.

“We’re trying to manage water in a way that protects water users and allows ongoing development. We can have both, if we manage the resource responsibly,” Sturdevant said. “The USGS study will give us a better understanding of how groundwater withdrawals impact the surface water supplies in the western portion of Kittitas County. People, farms and fish depend on these surface waters for their survival.”

Kittitas housing and business developers are securing senior water rights in private water banks established by Suncadia Resort and Northland Resources. The rights allow new water connections for individual or shared wells or small water systems. Ecology has approved more than 1,270 new connections so far. The significant economic activity generated by the water connections will benefit the local tax base without harming water right holders in the basin.

Beginning in July 2009, an emergency Ecology groundwater rule halted new groundwater withdrawals in Upper Kittitas County west of Indian John Hill unless they are fully mitigated to offset impacts to senior water rights. In June 2010, Ecology filed a proposal for a permanent groundwater rule. In November 2010, Ecology’s director made the determination that the final rule meets the criteria for being exempt from Gov. Chris Gregoire’s suspension of non-critical rule-making by state agencies.

In addition to funding $642,000 of the $977,000 USGS study, the Washington state Legislature has provided $58,000 to Kittitas County for professional hydrogeologic consulting services to facilitate Kittitas County’s participation in the Upper Kittitas County Groundwater Study Advisory Committee.

The massive Palisades Dam on the Snake River east of Idaho Falls, built between 1951 and 1957 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is a hydropower dam that stores a large mass of water – capacity of 1.4 million acre-feet. The bureau continues to operate the dam.

But whose water is it?

That question has turned into a major disagreement in the Snake River Basin Adjudication. Judge Eric Wildman has declined to turn it into a basin wide issue, but on December 21 held a hearing to review arguments from the Bureau of Reclamation on one side and a number of water using parties on the other.

Palisades has some specific larger importance because it is the first major water blockage, or use, after the Snake River enters the state of Idaho from Wyoming.

The key piece of paper in this case is the Eagle Decree from 1968, from then-Judge Theron Ward in the 5tth district, involving the Burley Irrigation District. The bureau argued that the decree is a contract with limited purposes, but that the agency and other area water users have been operating under its terms for many years, “and no one has never complained … We believe the system as it operates today, works.”

A special master report on the disagreement generally appeared to side with the bureau. But the southern Idaho Surface Water Coalition has asked for a review of that analysis.

Tom Arkoosh, one of the attorneys for the Surface Water Coalition, which is challenging a proposed Bureau of Reclamation water right at the dam, said that between the congressional approval for the dam in the early 50s and the Eagle Decree in 1968, the system of water storage and use changed dramatically in southern Idaho. Some of the language in the decree, he said, seems to contemplate that all area water users should be bound by its terms – that in practice, “this is in fact a general adjudication decree; there was an effort adjudicate every water right.”

And that, he appeared to suggest, should have a significant impact on how water is adjudicated in the SRBA.

Wildman noted that the Idaho Supreme Court has said that the main stem of the Snake and many of its tributaries have not been adjudicated, and those which have – such as in the Lemhi River – nonetheless have had to file in the SRBA.
But attorney Kent Fletcher said that “there are questions of fact; we’re not dealing simply with [legal] opinion.”

And Arkoosh said that the bureau’s stance was not simply a matter of staying the course: “What you’re being asked to do is to unravel the deal made to build Palisades storage.”

A proposal involving swaps of substantial water rights, and involving significant financial settlements, between the computer chip maker Intel Corporation and the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, has been dropped.

A number of Rio Grande area water users, and a number of legislators from those areas, were opposed to the deal, concerned it might wind up limiting water access for other users. State officials had argued that the agreement would overall be beneficial.

Last summer the state described the agreement and the process behind it this way:

Under the proposed agreement the Interstate Stream Commission will receive water rights and funds from Intel in exchange for assuming part of Intel’s obligation to offset Rio Grande depletion impacts that result from Intel’s groundwater pumping. The Interstate Stream Commission plans to meet that obligation using water that it has available to it, including water rights Intel will convey to them, relinquished Rio Grande Compact credits and other sources available to the Interstate Stream Commission.

Under the terms of the agreement, the state would receive about 741 acre-feet of senior water rights that would ultimately be placed in the Strategic Water Reserve for ecological projects aimed at solving endangered species issues in the Middle Rio Grande. In addition, Intel will also provide $1 million a year for 10 years, adjusted for inflation, to the Interstate Stream Commission for the Strategic Water Reserve and for dealing with endangered species issues on the Middle Rio Grande.

The Director of the Interstate Stream Commission and staff have been meeting with Middle Rio Grande stakeholders to help explain the agreement and its benefits to New Mexico. Links to the agreement, presentation materials and correspondence are available to view below.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Mexican Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada on December 20 announced completion of an agreement, known as ‘Minute 318,’ to adjust water deliveries on the Colorado River to areas damaged by a devastating earthquake on April 4.

Following their meeting in Mexico City, the Secretaries also announced a commitment by the two governments to initiate, in January 2011, high-priority discussions on a comprehensive long-term agreement between the U.S. and Mexico on the management of the Colorado River.
“Through this water agreement, the U.S., Mexico, and the seven Colorado River Basin states are bringing resources together for our mutual benefit and for the benefit of our neighbors whose irrigation systems and livelihoods have been damaged by the Easter Sunday earthquake,” said Salazar, who is in Mexico City to discuss water, conservation, and natural resource issues with President Calderon and Mexican government officials. “Minute 318 is a remarkable achievement from a humanitarian perspective, but it also lays important groundwork for a much-needed comprehensive water agreement with Mexico on how we manage the Colorado River.”

“Water users and stakeholders up and down the Colorado River have a strong interest in a comprehensive water agreement that would enhance reliability, certainty, and efficiency of water deliveries,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor, who coordinated with the seven Colorado River Basin States and the International Boundary and Water Commission to reach the Minute 318 agreement. “The good faith negotiations that resulted in Minute 318 will help pave the way toward the comprehensive agreement for Colorado River management that is so needed on both sides of the border.”

Secretary Salazar and Secretary Elvira commended the work by the U.S. and Mexican Commissioners of the International Boundary and Water Commission, Edward Drusina and Roberto Salmon, who led their respective nation’s negotiation teams for Minute 318.

Under Minute 318, Mexico will be able to temporarily defer delivery of a portion of its annual Colorado River water allotment while repairs are made to the irrigation system in the Mexicali Valley of Baja California as a result of an April 4, 2010 earthquake. This agreement is founded on the 1944 Water Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico.

State Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant has signed the Hillis Rule amendment to expedite the processing of water right applications for water storage projects in the Columbia River basin.

The Hillis Rule sets priorities for processing water rights applications. This is the first update of the rule since its adoption in 1998. Ecology’s amendment of the Hillis rule allows priority processing of water right applications for such projects as replacing failing public water systems or developing new water supplies in water-short areas of Washington state.

The amendment allows expediting of aquifer and surface storage projects as long as they don’t conflict with state or federal instream flow rules. Some projects expected to benefit from the rule include storage projects for the City of White Salmon, Chelan Public Utility District and Klickitat County, as well as water banking and public water supply projects throughout Washington state. These projects are funded with state grants through Ecology’s Office of the Columbia River.

“Bringing water rights processing in line with current statutes and policies results in high-priority water needs moving ahead in the pending-application line,” said Ken Slattery, manager of the Water Resources Program at Ecology. “Updating this rule is all the more important due to cuts in funding and staff for water right application processing.”

The Hillis Rule amendment was adopted after Ecology’s director determined it meets the criteria for an exemption from Gov. Chris Gregoire’s moratorium announced November 17, on non-critical rule development by state agencies. It meets the Governor’s criterion that rule adoption provide more flexibility in getting water to pending water right applicants, supporting small business and economic growth.

The original Hillis Rule was the result of a 1997 Washington state Supreme Court decision (Larry Hillis v. the Department of Ecology) that upheld Ecology’s authority to prioritize the processing of water right applications for emergency uses, transfers and short term projects but said the prioritization must be accomplished through rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act. More information on the Hillis Rule is available on a Hillis Rule amendment website.