In this new video, get a glimpse at how crews are modernizing an important part of Byron-Bethany Irrigation District’s (BBID) delivery system, Canal 45. This phase of the project, near the Byron Airport, is expected to be completed by the end of February.
The following news release is from the California Department of Water Resources:
Groundwater sustainability plans that have recently been submitted to the Department are now posted on the DWR SGMA Portal.
These plans are open to public comment for 75 days after the posted date. Below in the table are links to the submitted plans, counties they cover, and the public comment period end date.
Information about how to comment on the plans can be found in a fact sheet in English and Spanish. Public comments are welcomed and encouraged. A SGMA Portal account is not necessary to submit comments.
| Basin | Local ID (if applicable) | Counties Covered | Public Comment Period EndDate |
| Tracy | N/A | Alameda
San Joaquin |
4/23/2022 |
| East Bay Plain | N/A | Alameda
Contra Costa |
4/23/2022 |
| East Contra Costa | N/A | Contra Costa | 4/23/2022 |
| Wyandotte Creek | N/A | Butte | 4/23/2022 |
| Colusa | N/A | Colusa
Glenn Yolo |
4/23/2022 |
| Corning | N/A | Glenn
Tehama |
4/23/2022 |
| Owens Valley | N/A | Inyo
Mono |
4/23/2022 |
| Big Valley (5-004) | N/A | Modoc
Lassen |
4/23/2022 |
| Santa Monica | N/A | Los Angeles | 4/23/2022 |
| Santa Clara River Valley East | N/A | Los Angeles | 4/23/2022 |
| Turlock | N/A | Merced
Stanislaus |
4/23/2022 |
| East Side Aquifer | N/A | Monterey | 4/23/2022 |
| Forebay Aquifer | N/A | Monterey | 4/23/2022 |
| Upper Valley Aquifer | N/A | Monterey | 4/23/2022 |
| Monterey | N/A | Monterey | 4/23/2022 |
| San Gorgonio Pass | N/A | Riverside | 4/23/2022 |
| Elsinore Valley | N/A | Riverside | 4/23/2022 |
| Temescal | N/A | Riverside | 4/23/2022 |
| Yucaipa | N/A | Riverside
San Bernardino |
4/23/2022 |
| Cosumnes | N/A | Amador
Sacramento |
4/23/2022 |
| Solano | N/A | Sacramento
Solano Yolo |
4/23/2022 |
| San Pasqual Valley | N/A | San Diego | 4/23/2022 |
| San Luis Obispo Valley | N/A | San Luis Obispo | 4/23/2022 |
| Sierra Valley | N/A | Plumas
Sierra |
4/23/2022 |
| Butte Valley | N/A | Siskiyou | 4/23/2022 |
| Sonoma Valley | N/A | Sonoma | 4/23/2022 |
| Petaluma Valley | N/A | Sonoma | 4/23/2022 |
| Santa Rosa Plain | N/A | Sonoma | 4/23/2022 |
| Fillmore | N/A | Ventura | 4/23/2022 |
| Piru | N/A | Ventura | 4/23/2022 |
For questions or more information, email sgmps@water.ca.gov.
In the CA 6th District Court of Appeal, the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) is urging the court to uphold a landmark decision solidifying the oldest water rights in California. Attorneys on behalf of BBID responded to an appeal filed by the State Water Resources Control Board, saying in part:
The Legislature never provided the State Board with the authority it now seeks from this Court. That is, the Legislature did not authorize the State Board to use trespass under Section 1052 as a means to preclude (i.e., curtail) Senior Right holders from diverting water within the scope of their rights, regardless of times of water shortage or surplus. To the contrary, the Legislature has been careful not to extend the right to regulate Senior Rights to the State Board, consistent with the fact that Senior Rights pre- date the State Board’s existence and authority. In addition, no court has interpreted the State Board’s other statutory authority to allow for such curtailment. Through this appeal, though, the State Board asks this Court to legislate from the bench, expanding its authority to curtail Senior Right holders in a manner that the Legislature has repeatedly not granted through the various amendments to Section 1052.
The trial court accurately concluded that the State Board did not have authority to curtail Respondents’ diversions of water under their valid Senior Rights, and this Court should affirm the trial court’s judgments regarding the State Board’s jurisdiction under Section 1052.
Background: The ongoing case is related to a 2015 enforcement action brought by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) against BBID shortly after BBID sued the SWRCB over unlawful curtailment notices issued by the SWRCB to more than a thousand pre-1914 water rights holders, including BBID. Over BBID’s objection, the Santa Clara Court stayed BBID’s lawsuit pending completion of the administrative hearing of the SWRCB’s enforcement action.
The SWRCB’s enforcement action sought enforcement of the curtailment notices against BBID for diverting water when allegedly none was available under its priority of right, and seeking a $5 million fine. On the third day of the administrative hearing before the SWRCB, BBID’s legal team successfully argued that the evidence submitted by the SWRCB litigation team failed to meet its burden of proof, and the SWRCB hearing officer granted BBID’s motion for judgment dismissing the enforcement action.
After the dismissal of the enforcement action, BBID resumed its related lawsuit, and on April 3, 2018, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh issued his Statement of Decision holding, among other things, that the SWRCB lacks jurisdiction to enforce priority of rights between pre-1914 and riparian water rights. The Court’s ruling solidifies the oldest water rights in California. Judge Walsh also held that the curtailment notices violated BBID’s due process rights because they commanded immediate curtailment of water rights and threatened large fines without providing water right holders an opportunity to challenge the findings upon which the notices were based.
Brentwood, CA (November 1, 2021) – Last month, the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion Project (Project) passed a significant milestone in officially filing agreements needed to form a Joint Powers Authority. This important milestone puts a group of Local Agency Partners one step closer to Project implementation.
The Byron-Bethany Irrigation District is a member agency of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, a Local Agency Project Partner.
Los Vaqueros Reservoir is an off-stream reservoir that was originally built by Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) in 1998. The original reservoir capacity was 100,000 acre-feet and in 2012, CCWD completed the first phase of expansion to hold 160,000 acre-feet.
Expanding Los Vaqueros to a new capacity of 275,000 acre-feet and adding new conveyance facilities will provide environmental, water supply reliability, operational flexibility, water quality and recreational benefits. Those benefits earned the expansion $470 million of the $2.7 billion in water storage investments approved by voters when Proposition 1 passed. The remainder of the project costs will be covered by federal and local partners.
Transforming a local reservoir into a regional facility requires partnerships. Agencies in the Bay Area and Central Valley, serving urban areas, agricultural land and wildlife refuges, have come together to move this expansion forward. A critical step in forming this partnership is the creation of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Joint Powers Authority (JPA).
The JPA establishes the governance of the Project among the partnering agencies and provides the organizational framework for Project design, construction, operation, maintenance and funding. JPA members will bring perspectives from the agency or agencies they represent and work collaboratively to meet the needs of all agencies involved. The JPA will hold its first official public meeting in mid-November.
Looking forward, the Project team is continuing work to secure the necessary permits, approvals and agreements to begin construction. At this point, construction is scheduled to begin in the winter of 2023.
More information about the JPA is available at www.losvaquerosjpa.com.
Additional project information is available below, including a monthly newsletter and project update summary.
On September 14th, local agencies including the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) are inviting the public to participate in a groundwater workshop. Members of the public will have an opportunity to learn about how their groundwater is being managed sustainably. To learn more about BBID’s role in groundwater management, click here.
Click here to register for next week’s event. The event flyer is below.
GroundwaterWorkshop39.14.21Sacramento, CA (September 2, 2021) – Today, the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) filed a formal Petition for Reconsideration with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), regarding recent water right curtailments impacting thousands of water right holders, including BBID.
The full document is below.
09022021 BBID Petition for Reconsideration of Res 2021-0028 Curtailment Order - FINAL (00116239xD2C75).PDFSacramento, CA (August 31, 2021) – On September 1, 2021, the unprecedented water right curtailments cutting off water supplies to thousands of water users in the Delta and San Joaquin watersheds will expire.
According to the update provided by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), the curtailments, which took effect on August 20, will terminate September 1. The SWRCB’s modeling tool indicates sufficient water will be available for water right holders, including the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID), to resume diversions.
BBID will resume normal water diversions once the curtailments cease. BBID’s pre-1914 water right, as well as its post-1914 water right serving the District’s West Side Service Area, are both curtailed. The water rate in the WSID Service Area will also revert to the regular 2021 rate.
Last Wednesday, BBID’s technical and legal team, as well as District leadership, met with Delta Watermaster Michael George to express objections to the SWRCB’s methodology used to determine water availability.
BBID, a senior water rights holder south of the Delta, was one of dozens of senior water right holders curtailed in 2015. BBID – facing a $5-plus million fine – prevailed before the SWRCB, proving that the methodology used by the SWRCB was flawed. Though the methodology has been revised since the SWRCB ruled in BBID’s favor in 2016, it still contains fatal flaws.
“This is a very fluid situation,” said BBID General Manager Rick Gilmore. “We will monitor any informational updates provided by the State Water Board in the coming days and weeks. Ultimately, we remain strongly committed to protecting our water rights and preserving reliable water supplies for our growers, the community of Mountain House and our M&I customers. To that end, we will continue to work collaboratively with the State Water Board to help bring clarity to these critically important decisions.”
This evening, the public is invited to learn more about the plan to manage local groundwater for the long term.
Byron-Bethany Irrigation District and neighborhood water agencies in the Tracy Subbasin are preparing a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Learn more about SGMA here.
The flyer for tonight’s event is below.
20210810_Tracy_Workshop_Flyer_BilingualSacramento, CA (August 3, 2021) – In a rash action deeply harmful to California’s agricultural community, the State Water Board adopted potentially unlawful emergency regulations based on incomplete, and in some instances, inaccurate information, exposing the agricultural community to billions of dollars in lost economic productivity.
The emergency regulations can support curtailments that prematurely cut off more than 10,000 water right holders in the Delta and San Joaquin watersheds, nearly all of them devoted to providing reliable water for one of our state’s most essential industries: agriculture.
“The State Water Board is attempting to wrest regulatory control over pre-1914 water rights, just as it did during the last drought,” said Russell Kagehiro, Board President of the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID). “By targeting agriculture in the Delta region, the State Water Board is unfairly imposing an enormous burden on those who will sustain the greatest socioeconomic damage, by unfairly threatening thousands of jobs and valuable crops.”
BBID, a senior water rights holder south of the Delta, was one of dozens of senior water rights holders curtailed in 2015. BBID – facing a $5-plus million fine – prevailed before the State Water Board and proved that the methodology used by the State Water Board was flawed.
Just six years later, the State Water Board is again unfairly targeting California agriculture, by threatening to curtail agricultural water use in the Delta, and imperiling thousands of jobs and valuable crops, while urban conservation remains voluntary.
“The Board says its emergency regulations are based on ‘the best information available,’” said BBID General Manager Rick Gilmore. “However, the Board’s methodology for determining water availability is built upon a series of flawed assumptions and has been shown by our legal and technical team to be inaccurate.”
Though the methodology has been revised since the State Water Board ruled in favor of BBID in 2016, it still contains fatal flaws. It mistakenly assumes native water resides in the Delta no more than one month, when preliminary modeling shows it resides 2-3 months. It does not account for return flows available to Delta diverters. Its demand data is incomplete, and its demand calculations are duplicative.
“BBID urges the State Water Board to abandon this coercive path and work with growers and irrigation districts,” Kagehiro said. “Shared sacrifice and a more complete understanding of water availability will reduce the severe impacts these regulations will undoubtedly have in some of California’s most vulnerable communities.
“Should the State Water Board continue down this road,” Kagehiro continued, “we will have no choice but to defend our water rights, which are the foundation for reliable water deliveries for multi-generational farming families, M&I customers, and the sole source of supply for the growing community of Mountain House.”
The legal and technical team of Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) prepared the following comment letter in response to recent emergency regulations proposed by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), which would cut off senior and riparian water rights, including those that provide reliable water supplies to BBID’s customers.
The full letter is below.
7-29-21 Comments re Emergency Curtailment Regs w-Exh A