President Donald Trump on Monday issued a memorandum directing the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior to develop a new plan within 90 days “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to...more
1/27/2025
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California officials have joined a legal effort to restore water to the Kern River after an abrupt shutoff of water dried up the river and killed thousands of fish in Bakersfield....more
10/25/2024
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California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order, calling on state agencies to create a comprehensive Water Resilience Portfolio, has set goals for recycling at least 800,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2030 and...more
Powerful pumps that supply much of California’s population with water have killed several thousand threatened and endangered fish this year, prompting environmental groups to demand that state and federal agencies take...more
4/15/2024
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Top water officials for the seven Colorado River Basin states met in December 2023 at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference to resume negotiating a new compromise for how they will share — and cut back on —...more
1/15/2024
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California legislators have passed a bill articulating the scope of the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority to investigate water rights. Senate Bill 389, which will go to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for a final...more
9/25/2023
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When ranchers violated an emergency order to stop pumping water from the Shasta River in 2022, state officials fined them $4,000, or roughly $50 each. Now California legislators are weighing a bill that would triple fines for...more
On Monday, September 12, 2022, a California Court of Appeal upheld a decision that the State Water Resources Control Board (the “Board”) lacks jurisdictional authority to issue curtailment notices to pre-1914 appropriative...more
California legislators reject bill to curb agricultural groundwater pumping -
The Bakersfield Californian – September 4 -
California lawmakers have rejected proposed legislation seeking to rein in agricultural...more
As severe drought conditions continue across the western U.S., Allen Matkins will begin publishing a quarterly newsletter focused on recent legal, regulatory, and policy issues impacting water users and suppliers in...more
6/20/2022
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THE DROUGHT CRISIS - 2021 was the driest year California has experienced in a century. At the end of the water year, spanning October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021, the State received only 11.87 inches of precipitation,...more