Cal. Water Curtailment Cases

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

After “one of the driest years in recorded state history,” Governor Brown proclaimed a state of emergency in January 2014 due to “severe drought conditions.” In May 2014, the Board notified water right holders in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds that the Board had “determined that the existing water supply . . . is insufficient to meet the needs of all water rights holders.” With respect to pre-1914 appropriative and riparian water right holders, the Board asked them to “conserve water” and informed them that it might “curtail some pre-1914 and riparian water rights in the near future.”5 In January 2015, the Board informed all water right holders in California that, unless there were significant improvement, it would be notifying those “in critically dry watersheds of the requirement to limit or stop diversions of water under their water right, based on their priority.” It warned that “[s]ome more senior riparian and pre-1914 water right holders can also receive a notice to stop diverting water based on their priority or limitation of natural flow.” In February 2015, the Board issued an “informational order,” to take effect on…