[env-trinity] FW: State Water Board Issues its First Temporary Groundwater Storage Permit to Capture Rain Season High Flows

[Sari Sommarstrom]

For Scott Valley


 

From: DiLuccia, Andrew at Waterboards
[mailto:Andrew.DiLuccia at Waterboards.ca.gov] On Behalf Of WB-EXEC-news
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2016 2:42 PM
Subject: NEWS RELEASE: State Water Board Issues its First Temporary
Groundwater Storage Permit to Capture Rain Season High Flows

 


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State Water Board Issues its First Temporary Groundwater Storage Permit to
Capture Rain Season High Flows


 


 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 15, 2016

Contact: Miryam Barajas
miryam.barajas at waterboards.ca.gov


 


SACRAMENTO - Today the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water
Board) issued its first temporary groundwater storage permit to the Scott
Valley Irrigation District to capture high winter and spring flows for local
groundwater storage and recharge. The permit is the first in what is
expected to be a series of temporary permits issued for this type of water
diversion and use.

The temporary permit application was submitted Jan. 13 by the District in
coordination with staff at the University of California at Davis, the
California Farm Bureau Federation, Scott River Water Trust and others. The
District proposes to divert up to 5,400 acre-feet of water during high water
events using existing diversion structures. Water will be diverted from the
Scott River using the District’s unlined earthen canal system and spread
onto as many as 3,475 acres of existing, dormant agricultural fields within
the District’s service area for infiltration.

 “The predicted high rainfall events associated with El Niño this year
provide an opportunity for accelerating groundwater recharge that we so
critically need,” said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus. “This is the
first of what we hope are many new opportunities for creative thinking and
community effort to take advantage of storm flows everywhere we can. My
thanks to everyone who helped allow us to turn this around in just a few
days.”

 Such temporary permits can reduce downstream flood risk and alleviate the
effects of heavy groundwater pumping in the short-term, as well as
demonstrate the feasibility of using available high water flows to recharge
local groundwater.

 The permit, consistent with water rights priorities and protections for
fish and wildlife, is anticipated to enhance approximately 26 miles of
habitat for fisheries downstream of the District’s diversion dam. The Scott
River and its tributaries support runs of Upper Klamath-Trinity rivers
Chinook, Klamath Mountains Province steelhead, and state and federally
threatened Southern Oregon-Northern California Coast coho salmon. Adding
spring and summer river flows for salmonids through winter diversion to
underground storage will increase groundwater base flow to the Scott River
and improve conditions for salmonids.

 A portion of the water diverted under this permit will be used to continue
a study by researchers at UC Davis studying the infiltration effects of
winter application of water on 15 acres of agricultural land in the Scott
River Valley. The diversion season will last until the end of March.

BACKGROUND
On Nov. 13, 2015, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s Executive Order B-36-15
<https://www.gov.ca.gov/docs/11.13.15_EO_B-36-15.pdf>  directed the State
Water Board to prioritize temporary water right permits to accelerate
approvals for projects that enhance the ability of a local or state agency
to capture high precipitation events this winter and spring for local
groundwater storage or recharge, consistent with water rights priorities and
protections for fish and wildlife.  

To encourage these types of temporary permits, the State Water Board reduced
the temporary permit application filing fee.  For more information on the
application process for groundwater recharge/storage visit the State Water
Board webpage
<http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/application
s/groundwater_recharge/> .

 

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