In 1992, CSPA protested a water rights application by the June Lakes Public Utilities District in Mono County. In 1998, June Lakes PUD agreed to incorporate a minimum streamflow requirement of 200 gallons per minute at its diversion on Fern Creek, tributary to Rush Creek and ultimately to Mono Lake. This agreement was incorporated into multiple water rights permits and licenses, and in return CSPA dismissed its protest.
In February, 2014, the State Water Board issued a notice of a petition by June Lakes PUD to reduce the Fern Creek minimum flow to 25 gallons per minute, one eighth the flow that it agreed to 16 years ago. On March 31, 2014, CSPA filed a protest with the State Water Board in opposition to the reduction.
Perhaps the most troublesome aspect of these events is that a water rights holder thought that it was okay, sixteen years after the fact, to simply back out of its flow agreement. The June Lakes PUD did not provide any scientific basis for its proposed change, and stated that the change was not significant enough to warrant formal environmental review; these omissions make the attempted rollback even worse.
June Lakes PUD did not extend the courtesy of notifying CSPA of its petition. However, CSPA diligently follows up its work and defends its agreements and other achievements.