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Water Board Revokes Bureau’s Auburn Dam Water Rights: Can’t Put
Water Rights in “cold storage”
“A great
victory for all who care about Central Valley fisheries.” December 2, 2008 -- Today the State Water Resources
Control Board unanimously revoked the 2.5 million acre-feet of water
rights the Board granted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to build
Auburn Dam some 37 years ago. The
amount of water is equivalent to two and a half times the water annually
pumped from the Delta over the Tehachapi Mountains to the L.A. Basin.
The Board found that the Bureau had not applied the water to
beneficial use with due diligence as required by the California Water
Code.
The Bureau’s water rights were originally granted
contingent on construction of Auburn Dam being completed by 1975 and the
water being put to “beneficial use” before the end of 2000.
However, after spending more than 227 million dollars on the dam,
construction stopped in 1975, as costs soared and questions on whether the
dam could withstand and earthquake arose. Congress refused to
authorize subsequent funding. The Bureau requested a time
extension to put the water to beneficial use. CSPA filed a protest
with the State Board based upon: 1) failure to exercise due diligence,
2) the need to reevaluate project impacts in light of legal and factual
changes that had occurred since the water rights were originally granted
and 3) potential impacts to water availability and water quality in the
Bay-Delta Estuary. The State Board directed the Bureau to: 1) respond
to the CSPA protest, 2) provide information on when and if the project
would proceed and whether funding could be secured and 3) prepare an
environmental review document. As the Bureau failed to provide the
required information, the State Board could not consider the time
extension request and subsequently scheduled an evidentiary hearing to
consider revocation of the project’s water rights.
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