Cal. Water Curtailment Cases CA6

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Curtailment Notice Mandate Actions and Administrative Enforcement Proceeding On April 23, 2015, the Board sent out curtailment notices to a group of water right holders after it “determined that the existing water supply in the San Joaquin River watershed is insufficient to meet the needs of all water rights holders.” (See generally California Water Curtailment Cases (2022) 83 Cal.App.5th 164.) These notices told “all holders of post-1914 appropriative water rights within the San Joaquin River watershed . . . to immediately stop diverting under their post-1914 water rights.” The notices also “advised that, if you continue to divert under a claim of pre-1914 right, most or all pre-1914 rights in the San Joaquin River watershed are likely to be curtailed later this year due to the extreme dry conditions.” On May 1, 2015, the Board sent nearly identical notices to water right holders within the Sacramento River watershed. In June 2015, the Board sent curtailment notices to water right holders, including the Districts, with “pre-1914 claims of right, with a priority date of 1903 and later for the Sacramento-San Joaquin watersheds and the Delta”…