Nacimiento Regional Water Management Advisory Committee v. Monterey County Water Resources Agency

A government agency builds a dam many years prior to the enactment of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The application to build the dam provides for the storing and annual release of water for various uses. Here we hold that the agency’s annual decision to release varying amounts of water to competing interests is part of an ongoing project, and is therefore exempt from CEQA.

The Nacimiento Regional Water Management Advisory Committee (Committee) appeals from the judgment of the trial court denying its petition for writ of mandate. Committee seeks to compel respondent, Monterey County Water Resources Agency (Agency), to set aside its 1991 annual water release schedule for the reservoir at Lake Nacimiento pending compliance with CEQA. (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq., eff. Nov. 23, 1970.)

The annual release schedule is part of the ongoing operation of the reservoir and, therefore, is exempt from CEQA. We affirm.

Facts

In 1955, the State of California approved Agency’s application to build Nacimiento Dam to store and release water annually for “irrigation and related Domestic, Municipal, Industrial, and Recreational uses with incidental flood…