California Water Rights: Compliance Checklist for 2019

As in years past, Brownstein’s California Water Group is pleased to provide you with our California Water Rights: Compliance Checklist for 2019. This checklist provides a summary of state water right reporting requirements and applicable deadlines for water users in California. It is important to meet the required reporting deadlines to maintain and protect your right to water in California.

Compliance with these requirements is now more important than ever. In the past year, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of noticed enforcement hearings in front of the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board), which is responsible for the administration of all surface water rights in California. The State Board maintains a list of all water right filing deficiencies. If not corrected, water users with deficient filings may be subject to enforcement.

Additionally, water users should be aware that changes to the State Board’s administration of water rights may be coming over the next year. To deal with the challenges of administering over 40,000 water rights, the State Board is in the process of developing a Water Rights Enforcement Policy. The State Board expects this policy will clarify its approach to water rights administration to ensure that enforcement is fair, equitable and consistent across all water users in California.

On March 1, 2019, the State Board began hosting a series of information and outreach sessions to gather input on the proposed Water Rights Enforcement Policy. However, a draft policy has not yet been issued. By coordinating with the regulated community and stakeholders, we hope the State Board will draft a transparent Water Rights Enforcement Policy that is both protective of water rights and provides straightforward guidance to water right holders about the actions they need to take to stay in compliance. As this policy takes shape, we encourage you to track the proposed Water Rights Enforcement Policy and how it may affect your water rights.

With the upcoming April 1 deadline for surface water diverters to report their water use to the State Board, use our California Water Rights: Compliance Checklist to find:

• Our summary of filings required for all surface water and groundwater users in California, including links to applicable forms and resources
• Our summary of new requirements for 2019
• A calendar of key annual filing deadlines

We encourage you to review this checklist and welcome any questions you may have about the maintenance and protection of your water rights.

Click the PDF above for the full checklist.

This document is intended to provide general information about and a summary of water right filing requirements and deadlines for California water users. The contents of this document are not intended to provide specific legal advice. If you have any questions about the contents of this document or if you need legal advice, please contact Stephanie Hastings, Mack Carlson or your regular Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP attorney. This communication may be considered advertising in some jurisdictions.