WATER SUPPLY PLANNING COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION
6.	EXPLANATION OF TABLE 13 WATER RIGHTS
Meeting Date:		May 4, 2020	Budgeted:	N/A
From:		David J. Stoldt	Program/
		General Manager	Line Item No.:	N/A
Prepared By:		David J. Stoldt	Cost Estimate:	N/A
General Counsel Approval: N/A
Committee Recommendation: N/A
CEQA Compliance: This action does not constitute a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15378.

SUMMARY: On July 6, 1995 the State Water Board issued Decision No. 1632 which approved Application 27614 by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District for the appropriation of water from the Carmel River by the New Los Padres Project. This became the District’s Permit 20808 water right.

The District was approved for up to 42 cubic feet per second of direct diversion and 24,000 acre feet annually (afa) to storage, not to exceed a combined total diversion of 29,000 afa. The authorized season of direct diversion and diversion to storage was from November 1 of each year to June 30 of the following year.

The decision included conditions which provide that any permit issued to the District shall:

a. Be junior in priority to the rights of persons diverting water for reasonable beneficial use under valid and properly exercised riparian, overlying, pre- and post-1914 appropriative claims of right (which were then currently prior to the District’s Application 27614), and

b. Be junior to any approved application for an appropriative right for certain persons identified in the decision who are using established quantities of water within the watershed of origin, irrespective of the priority of such applications vis a vis the District's application.

The “certain persons” under “b” above were identified in Table 13 of the Decision. Condition 10 of the Decision provided an opportunity for the persons named in Table 13 to obtain a water right permit with a priority superior to the District’s Permit 20808. The Table 13 list were given an opportunity to document their water use and seek revisions to the Table 13 quantities listed in the original decision. Decision 1632 and its Table 13 were amended March 17, 1997 and the restated Table 13 is included as Exhibit 6-A.

In 1993, California American Water (Cal-Am) was issued its Permit 30215A – its Table 13 water right – for the diversion shall not exceed 4.1 cubic feet per second from December 1 of each year to May 31 of the succeeding year. The maximum annual diversion shall not exceed 1,488 acre-feet during the authorized diversion season. Because the permit is seasonally limited to December 1 through May 31 each year and subject to instream flow requirements actual production will vary by water year. In the District’s Supply and Demand analysis, we assumed 300 AFA on average. The place of use is limited to within the California-American Water Company service area, Carmel River watershed area only.

Very few applications associated with Table 13 have been processed.  It turns out that many of the applications made back in the 1990s have been cancelled.  After the National Marine Fishing Service (NMFS) introduced instream flow requirements in 2002, several applicants balked at completing the permit process, so there are several “pending” applications.  Also, SWRCB has routinely been writing permits for much less than the “face value” amount in the application (Cal-Am’s Table 13 permit is a prime example).

Many of the applicants on Table 13 are also current riparian diverters, so it’s a bit messy trying to parse riparian use and Table 13 applications and permits.  In the future, some of the riparian diverters that hold a Table 13 permit may be able to divert under either right – but not both at the same time.  So, for those diverters, it would be double-counting potential water use to add riparian and appropriative rights together.  The non-Cal-Am production from the alluvial aquifer has averaged a little more than 2,300 AFY. Exhibit 6-B shows how all of the Carmel River water rights interact, as of 2015.

EXHIBITS
6-A Table 13 Water Rights Holders

6-B Summary of Carmel River Water Rights (2015)

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