The City of Davis, University of California Davis and the City of Woodland submitted applications to divert up to 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Sacramento River. CSPA protested the applications. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has announced it will hold an evidentiary hearing (testimony, cross-examination and rebuttal, all under oath) on 18 and 19 January regarding CSPA’s protest. CSPA, the applicants and South Delta Water Agency are the designated parties to the hearing.
CSPA has submitted testimony and 40 exhibits documenting that the Sacramento Basin is over appropriated and that any additional diversion of water will further harm already degraded fisheries and water quality.
The SWRCB has already issued water rights to eight and a half times the median unimpaired runoff in the entire basin. In the recent Delta flow hearings, the SWRCB found that half of the unimpaired flow into the Delta was diverted upstream or exported at the giant pumps of the federal and state projects in the Delta and that 75% of Sacramento River unimpaired flow (and 60% of San Joaquin River flow and up to 75% of Delta outflow) was necessary to restore the pelagic and salmonid fisheries of the Central Valley.
This hearing and upcoming hearings on the San Joaquin River will signal whether or not the SWRCB is serious about protecting fisheries and water quality. Attached are the hearing notice and CSPA’s testimony (less exhibits). Hearing Notice Jennings Testimony Shutes Testimony