Drought Water Right Curtailment Analysis for California’s Eel River

Abstract

Water users in California's hybrid water rights system have different priorities to available surface water in times of water scarcity. A set of two linear programming models was developed to determine curtailments of water uses under drought conditions according to riparian and appropriative water right doctrines with spatially varying water availability and water rights within a basin. The models were implemented in spreadsheets and extended to estimate water right reliability and factors of safety in water right administration. Alternate methods for calculating water use curtailments are discussed. Curtailments from the models are compared to actual water shortage notices issued by the state for the Eel River, California for June 30, 2014. Analyzing water use curtailments with an algorithm in spreadsheet software offers a mechanistic, transparent, accessible, and precise approach derived from legal doctrines to support water rights administration during drought.

Lessons from California’s 2012–2016 Drought

“…State and federal agencies and science programs were largely unprepared to take advantage of these scientific opportunities. Some important scientific work did occur (Durand et al 2018;Jeffries et al 2016;Lehman et al 2017;Medellín-Azuara et al 2018;Lord et al 2018), although often less systematically. Scientific syntheses that assemble data, analyses, and lessons from the drought likely have great value.…”

Water Availability for Biorefineries in the Contiguous United States and the Implications for Bioenergy Production Distribution

“…Especially, droughts can have significant impacts for biorefineries. During a drought event, the reduced total water availability can lead to water right curtailment, especially when biorefinery water right priority is relatively low compared to some sectors such as domestic and municipal water use . On the other hand, severe droughts can lead to biomass production reduction and hence difficulty in securing feedstock requirement from areas around biorefineries, which, along with water use curtailment for the biorefineries, can cause additional risk in bioenergy production, as well as additional cost to transport feedstock from distant locations .…”

“…During a drought event, the reduced total water availability can lead to water right curtailment, especially when biorefinery water right priority is relatively low compared to some sectors such as domestic and municipal water use. 53 On the other hand, severe droughts can lead to biomass production reduction and hence difficulty in securing feedstock requirement from areas around biorefineries, 54 which, along with water use curtailment for the biorefineries, can cause additional risk in bioenergy production, as well as additional cost to transport feedstock from distant locations. 55 Furthermore, drought can lead to biomass composition changes such as the reduction of glucan, xylan, and lignin components and the increase of soluble sugars, which can create inhibitors during biomass pretreatment and lower the biofuel conversion efficiency.…”

Mirror Macro-Imagineering Water Supply Megaprojects: Pipedream Chile-California Complementarity? (Macro-Imagenharia de Megaprojetos Espelhados para Abastecimento de Água: Aquedutos Chile/California como Soluções Complementares Sonhadas?)

“…The main goal for our "California Umbilical Cord" must be the essential restoration of the San Joaquin River's pre-World War II volume of freshwater flow into the overstressed Delta Region and San Francisco Bay by using its watery augmentation through North Coast freshwater importation via submarine pipeline and connected overland pipeline to San Luis Reservoir. Coincident with this singular environmental maintenance goal must be the reformation or reorganization of the Eel River [19][20][21], Russian River and Rogue River; the documented response of North Coast residents and their representatives, in the past, has been hostile to development plans affecting these California rivers. On 18 July 2018, California's Supreme Court removed Proposition 9 from the General [State-wide] Election Ballot slated for 6 November 2018.…”