What’s Your Right? – Page 3

Can Measuring Your Diversion Make You Money??

Yes, if you know how much you divert by the month or week, you can take it to the bank. Literally, if you have good numbers, it can make the difference between getting the operating or improvement loan you want, or working harder to get a lesser amount. Your water right is a resource, just like the land, equipment, seed, feed Man working in ditch CostaDisc2-129 - Edited , livestock, or anything else. The better proof you have on just how much of that resource, in this case your diversion, that you have, the more solid it looks to a banker.

Another well-known fact, you have to measure your diverted water to manage it. Chris Reilly, the
Department of Water Resources Indian Creek Watermaster in Plumas County, educates people on this fact all the time. In one case, a diverter was correctly diverting the right amount, but was losing more than half of it in the short ditch before it reached the field. Why photo_4957 didn’t the farmer know? He had not measured it. Once Chris measured it, the owner knew what he was losing. He piped part of his ditch and was able to irrigate more acreage. That’s money in the pocket once the pipe is paid off!

Every buyer of property has a bunch of questions, and how much water is actually available is top of the list for a farm or ranch. If you can show records of how much you log_book_example divert, it gives certainty to a doubtful buyer or potential lessee. They’ll know how much they can expect to have for irrigation in a wet, normal, or dry year. I had so many calls over the years I worked at the Department of Water Resources, from realtors, attorneys, buyers, and sellers, asking “What is my water right? How do I prove it?” Sometimes it was sell or no-sell depending on the answer. On one ranch near Fall River, a riparian right on a square-mile ranch was in question. A Nevada buyer called Irrigation_small me several times trying to understand California water rights and prove whether or not there was a solid water right on this ranch. If the seller had documented his water right and how much he diverted annually, there would have been no doubt at all!

It supports your water right. Water rights make land worth more, a LOT more than dry land. The better a water right is documented, as well as diversions made under that right, the more solid you right is.

Most farmers want their kids to inherit the place and keep it in agricultural production. It is a way of life available to fewer families each year, which means it is scarce, and that makes living on a working farm that much greater a gift to leave behind you. Your will, or trust, or LLC, or corporation documents, need to be all squared away so your wishes are met after you have passed on. A proven water right is one of the important things you’ll need in that documentation to ensure your family can keep irrigating the farm down the generations.

That’s all for now, and a good night to all.

Permits And Licenses – What Are The Water Rights When Land Is Subdivided?

Back in December, I posted on the place of use for water rights defined in permits and licenses from the Water Board:

allwaterrights.com/2015/12/16/a-place-for-permits-and-licenses/

Permits and licenses have a place of use – sometimes it is easy to locate on the ground, and sometimes it is so-many-acres within a larger area. I have never found the maps with the online, downloadable documents available at eWRIMS. To get the maps, staff at the Water Board have to be contacted, and a copy of the map must be requested separately.

If you have, or some other diverter has a water right and the land has never subdivided since the time that the permit or license was issued, then a new owner will easily be able to see where the water right is diverted and applied. What if you own land subdivided from a larger farm or ranch with a permitted or licensed right? Do you have a water right at all? I asked Paul Wells at the Water Board, and he explained:

“When land with a water right is subdivided, the new owners are responsible for contacting the State Water Board to inform us of the ownership change. Additional information on filing a change of ownership may be found on the following webpage:

http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ewrims/ownership/

For administrative purposes, we have one primary contact for each water right. If the land is subdivided, the additional owners should contact our office to record that they are now co-owners under the right.

There is also the option of splitting the right into two or more rights. Each part would then be treated as an individual water right.”

That’s good news if you want to keep your part of the water right! This comes with a big caution – the Water Board will consider whether a permitted or licensed right has been used within the last 5 years. If not, it is possible the Board may consider the right to have expired…although it is not automatic. Also, if one person has been paying the costs associated with the water right, both physical maintenance and Board fees, as well as filing all the paperwork (now online forms), that person may contest a subdivision of the water right. The decision is in the hands of the Water Board.

This is much the same as a water right described in a Superior Court decree. If the right is areal and is a certain flow or volume on certain acreage, then it is usually proportioned by acreage for subdivided parcels. There are exceptions – if the rights are apportioned differently by written agreement, then this may be accepted by a judge later if a case comes before the court. If the resultant parcels are too small, then state watermaster areas will give the tiny rights to larger parcels. For example, at the Department of Water Resources, the minimum right is 0.005 cfs, unless a tiny piece added to one or more other pieces sums to 0.005 cfs.

As always, it pays to do your research before bringing this up with Water Board staff or your neighbor. On the one hand, you don’t want to waste your time and money only to find out your property was never part of the place of use described in a permit or license. On the other hand, if your property should have a right, you want to make your claim clear and then approach your neighbor(s) politely with plenty of evidence. Having a right doesn’t mean someone else won’t take action before the Water Board or in court, costing you time and money even if you are right. So, prepare your paperwork, maps, photos, and calculations ahead of time.

I hope you got some of the rain we have had at our place the last couple of days. That’s enough for now, have a good night everyone!

What Does A Water Rights Report Look Like?

Williamson_Parcel_Outline_on_DecreeMap_reduced In December 2015, I told the story of the Williamsons, owners of property near Cow Creek in Shasta County. They wanted to know what their water right is. After talking with neighbors, they decided their best option was to work with Rights To Water Engineering. In a short time, and at a relatively low cost, they had a report explaining their water right, how much of their property it covers, where the diversion is, and other important information from South Cow Creek Decree No. 38577.

How to Divide Up a Decreed Water Right – Part 1

How to Divide Up a Decreed Water Right – Part 2

So, what does their report look like? Most of it is shown in the posts above, but the report is not. Click here to see the whole 14-page report. Now you know what to expect to see in your water rights report!

How is a person supposed to figure out his or her water right, certify a measurement device, measure the diverted flow, and report it to the Water Board? That is what I do for a living: help you get rid of headaches, upset, and trouble, to comply with State law, make sure you know your water right, and measure and report your diversions. The phone call is free to discuss your needs, (530) 526-0134, and email is also free at RightsToWaterEng1@gmail.com.

Arnold and Eileen Williamson Report 20151224_01

Arnold and Eileen Memo 20151222_02

Arnold and Eileen Memo 20151222_03

Williamson_Parcel_Outline_on_Aerial_reduced

TractMgmtSheet_20151222_Arial_12_03_reduced

How Do I …. ? (Determine My Water Rights, Measure Flows, Report Flows , Etc.)

See the new “How Do I … ?” link on the left. There are so many posts on this blog, it is getting harder to find stuff. Click on the link, or right-click then “Open link in new tab”, and the big questions are linked to the appropriate blog posts.

Another way to search is, as always, Google. For example, googling “allwaterrights measure weir” brings up the following results:

ggl_awr_meas_weir

Tehama County Association of Realtors Water Rights Talk

TCAR — Tehama County Association of Realtors Office. Photo Credit: google.com

The Tehama County Association of Realtors graciously had me come speak this morning. I enjoy public speaking, including spreading the word on water rights and flow measurement. The TCAOR are a friendly and intelligent bunch.

In an earlier post, I had briefly listed the types of water rights, with short descriptions. That list came from a 10-page document that Watermaster Kevin Taylor and I developed for a Northern California Assessors continuing education presentation. We had not been able to find a comprehensive list small enough to hand out, and with enough information to actually understand the subject. I mentioned the 10-pager during my talk this morning, and since I did not have them printed I directed folks here. DWR handed that document out freely, but we did not put it online – so here it is:

What_Kinds_Of_Water_Rights_Are_There_NorCal Assessors_Prsnt_20131113.pdf

How Do I Comply With Water Board Regulations? Part 3

In Part 2, How Do I Comply With Water Board Regulations? Part 2, we considered the question: Who has to have a certified, accurate device by January 1, 2017? How often is it monitored? The answer is, those who divert 1,000 acre-feet (AF) per year or more, and it has to be monitored hourly. Shawn_pointing_with_rule What size diversion is this, really? An irrigation diversion of 1,000 AF over 6 months, with flows starting at 100% of the water right, declining to 50% of the right by the end of the season (month 6) would calculate out to a water right of 3.68 cubic feet per second (cfs), or about 3.7 to 4.0 cfs (cfs). Depending on where you are, that irrigates somewhere between 80 and 400 acres of hay or pasture.

In this post, I’ll answer 2 questions:

What if your water right is smaller than 3.7 cfs, diverting 100 AF to 1,000 AF per year?
A BIG question right now: What is “alternative compliance”, and how might it be done to meet the Water Board’s regulations?

Shawn_pointing_at_orifice To answer the first question, the next category down is 100 AF to 1,000 AF per year. Using the example of a 6-month irrigation season, with a diversion that starts at 100% of the water right and gradually declines to 50%, the water right we’re talking about is about 0.37 to 3.7 contracted_weir cfs. This category does not have to comply as quickly – the deadline is July 1, 2017, or nearly a year from now. The measurement frequency is daily, which is possible to be done by a diligent person, if not not recorded automatically. For a sense of how much water this is, depending on where you are, what the soils are like, and how efficient the diversion is, the acreage of hay or pasture irrigated ranges from about 8 to 370 acres.

What kind of measurement devices would meet the regulations? The same types that we discussed in Part 2, but ranging down to smaller sizes:

weirs as little as 0.5′ (0.5 feet, or 6″) wide, or wider with boards cut to make contracted weirs
free-flowing orifices with holes down to 0.16 x 0.16′ (2″ x 2″) square and a piece of steel plate to adjust it smaller
submerged orifices down to 0.25′ x 0.25′ (3″ x 3″) with an adjustment plate.
small flumes and meters

The photos above show smaller-sized devices than the 4′ weirs shown in earlier posts.

The second, and these days much BIGGER question, what about alternative compliance? The Water Board requires submission of alternative compliance plans on a form that is not yet available. If it were my diversion, I would not worry about that; I would put together my plan and send it in. The old rule applies that if you are not sure who to send it to, send it to several managers and maybe a Deputy Director. Emailing documents is cheaper; most computers will let you print to PDFs that can be emailed. Your submittal probably will not be accepted this way but the point is, the Water Board cannot say that you have not attempted to comply. Not complying at all can be very expensive; “Do something wrong, instead of nothing at all.”

This screenshot is from an OLD, no longer valid Statement Of Use form, but it
gives some ideas of what options for alternative compliance the Water Board has in mind.

What has to be in your alternative compliance plan? From the Water Board’s ADOPTED TEXT OF EMERGENCY REGULATION, the text gives 12 parts that must be in the plan (below). The plan may be rejected – having a plan (instead of a standard, certified measurement device) is no guarantee that the Board will accept it. In summary, the plan must detail contacts for all people on a ditch, Assessor Parcel Numbers, the water right(s), priority(ies), use(s), diversion(s), ditch(es) and/or pipe(s), measurement frequency and methods, dates for milestones and completion, permits required, financing plan, and map(s) showing the plan area including all physical features and place of use…and all of this must be signed by all water right holders on the ditch (the emphasized text in the bullet points is mine):

“………… §935 Alternative Compliance for a Measuring Device or Measurement Method Requirement.

(a) Alternative Compliance – Generally. In circumstances where strict compliance with sections 933 or 934 of this title is not feasible, would be unreasonably expensive, would unreasonably affect public trust uses, or would result in the waste or unreasonable use of water, a diverter may submit an alternative compliance plan.

(b) Minimum Standards – an alternative compliance plan under subdivision (a) shall meet the following minimum standards:

(1) The plan shall include the following information:

(A) The name and contact information for all diverters covered by the plan;
(B) The name and contact information for the person designated to represent all diverters covered by the plan in matters before the board;
(C) Identification of each individual water right type and priority covered by the plan;
(D) A detailed description of the area served by the plan, including all points of diversion whether used or not used, all methods of diversion, any conveyance systems, all beneficial uses of water, and all acreage served;
(E) The assessor’s parcel numbers and ownership within the area covered by the plan;
(F) Identification of the proposed measurement frequency;
(G) Identification of the proposed measurement methodology;
(H) Topographic map(s) or aerial photograph(s) of the area covered by the plan that show the separate places of use authorized to be served by claimed water rights covered by the plan and showing the acreage served;
(I) An implementation schedule, including date-specific, objective milestones of plan implementation from date of filing through final implementation, including the estimated milestones for acquiring permits required for plan implementation and the estimated milestones for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, if required;
(J) Budget for implementation of the plan and the source(s) of financing for the plan;
(K) A list of any permits required for plan implementation, the agencies that will issue the permits, and expected dates for issuance;
(L) An affirmation, signed by all diverters covered by the plan, that the plan will be implemented in accordance with the schedule contained therein and that all claimed water rights covered by the plan will not be exercised outside the scope of the plan …………”

New_Weir

eWRIMS Board Water Rights Search – Part 3

This is the third part of the discussion of the Water Board‘s Electronic Water Rights Information Management System – eWRIMS. In eWRIMS Board Water Rights Search – Part 2, we looked at how to search by Water Right type, Status, ID, County, etc., and most relevant for finding your own, by Primary Owner. Let’s search by Primary Owner “Metropolitan”: eWRIMS_search_dialog_Met - Edited 2

The results we get are all the names with the word “Metropolitan” in them, and first on the list are the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: eWRIMS_search_results_Owner_Met - Edited

We’ll scroll down the page until we get to Application Number A006406. By the way, if you have a Permit or License, or you are looking for one, that Application Number is important. It is the unique identifier for these documents, sort of like the Assessors Parcel Number is the true unique identifier for your property for tax purposes. A006406 is for an Appropriative Permit for with a face value of 1,085,950 acre-feet. If we click on the number A006406 in the left column, we get this summary: Permit_Summary - Edited 2

The summary doesn’t have that much more useful information – what we really want to do is go look at the original document. Click on the “View Permit” text in the upper left-hand corner. Now you get to see a scan of the permit. You can see that document by clicking here: a006406 The first page of the permit is shown here. And this is the information you want to see for your application, permit, or license, the actual face value, purpose, place of use, and so on.

Permit_7641_firstpage - Edited

In the same way, we can view and download Statements Of Use (SOU). Clicking through the Summary is a little different – we scroll down the page and then pick the statement for the year we want. Here is the summary for SOUs for one of the City of Santa Barbara’s Permits: SB_SOU_Sum - Edited

Clicking on the year 2015 brings up the following report, showing that under this Permit, Santa Barbara diverted a total of 287.8 acre-feet last year:

Santa_Barbara_SOU - Edited

That’s how we use eWRIMS to search for information on water rights and Statements Of Use. Remember, many thousands of adjudicated and riparian rights, and some pre-1914 rights, are not in the database. What do we do if we think there is a water right, and we’re not sure where the information is?

Start with eWRIMS, and call the Water Board if the database answer is inconclusive. You may have to call several times, these folks are way too busy.
Call the Watermaster if it is an adjudicated water right under watermaster service. Even if the right is under a decree with no Watermaster, whoever you call probably has a good idea of who to call next to find out. Google the county and name of the stream to see if one of the first five or so results brings up a Watermaster’s name or phone number.
Call the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the water right is. Ask if they have a searchable index of some kind that would give you a Case Number for an adjudication. Some counties even have old water rights books where you can search for a pre-1914 recording of a right.

That’s plenty for now. Have a great weekend!

eWRIMS Board Water Rights Search – Part 2

In Part 1 of t his discussion, we looked at the different types of water rights included in the Water Board’s eWRIMS water rights search database. Now we’ll talk about how to narrow down your search to find just the water rights of interest. The majority of questions people have are about their own water rights. How can you find out what eWRIMS has about your water right?

If you pick the eWRIMS Database System link, and hit the “Accept” button at the bottom of the next page, you’ll arrive at at the Water Rights Records Search page. This looks like a data entry form, and allows you to search by water right type, status, ID, county, etc., and most relevant for finding your own, by Primary Owner. Whoops! I sure thought it was – it is now disabled. Maybe that’s temporary, but even a couple of weeks ago I was able to put in “California”, for example, and find the rights held by State agencies. As a matter of fact, none of the searches I am trying right now even list any results in the “Holder Name column.

UPDATE: Search by Primary Owner is working again as of June 29, 2016 at 8:30 A.M. Thanks, eWRIMS folks for restoring it!

Next, try your County, Source (River name or Source Name), Entity Type, and any other information that you know. This will give you a list of results. For example, entering Trinity for County and Hayfork Creek for Source yields 31 results. Without the “Holder Name” listed it is tough to tell which one is yours…unless you also know one of your IDs. If that functionality is restored that it makes it easy. One CAVEAT – if you or the previous owner have not updated the current owner (as the Board requires), then the person’s name will be some previous owner. You’ll likely recognize it.

eWRIMS GIS Hayfork - Edited If “you can’t get there from here”, then you can search by map, in the eWRIMS Web Mapping Application (GIS). The map starts by showing all of California and you zoom in to your area. When you zoom in far enough, you’ll see rectangular labels of various colors start to appear. You can click on these to see the individual Application, Permit, License, or Statement of Use. The screenshot above shows part of Hayfork Creek in Trinity County.

If you have not used eWRIMS, try it out for your and your neighbors’ water rights. Remember, most riparian and nearly all adjudicated water rights will NOT show up here, but pre-1914, post-1914, some riparian, and some other rights will. Next time we’ll talk about some of the information you can find on forms for the various rights and statements.

For now, happy water rights searching!

AllWaterRights Blog Moving To ShawnPike.com / eWRIMS Board Water Rights Search – Part 1

The AllWaterRights Blog is Moving! http://www.shawnpike.com is my permanent site, and as soon as I get the formatting done all the new posts will be over there.

In the meantime, how does someone search for water rights in California? It used to be an onerous task – and today it is only half-onerous. 🙂 Actually the Water Board gets more information every day and puts it into the Electronic Water Rights Information Management System – eWRIMS for short (pronounced ee-rims). This screenshot shows the two important links. The first is to the database, which gives text tables of results and links to some form-entered documents, and some scanned documents. The second link goes to the geographic information system (GIS), which consists of mapped points linked to the database, on top of reference maps.

What can you find here? In short, nearly all the post-1914 appropriative Water Rights Applications, Permits, and Licenses can be found here. Most of the pre-1914 appropriative, and an increasing number of riparian water rights can be found here. The 2009 water laws that increased reporting requirements and greatly increased penalties, moved most water right holders who had not been filing, to get on the train and avoid the pain. If you search with no parameters, then the database returns a listing of all records, over 52,000 right now. eWRIMS_query_all_edited

What’s missing? Nearly all adjudicated water rights are not found on eWRIMS. There are thousands of rights defined in numerous Superior Court Decrees, that are not found in the database. Statements of Use are filed for these rights, but not in a form that is easy to put into eWRIMS. Where could you find these? We’ll cover that in future posts.

http://www.shawnpike.com is up and running, right now with the brief front page. More to come soon! A good night to all.

Standard Units – Acre-Feet and CFS

“Mornin’ Lisa, this is Will. Hey, my diversion dropped off last night. You’re the next water user upstream, so I thought I’d check if you made a change last night.”

“Hey Will, how are you folks? Yeah I did. I was only taking 50, and my right is 112, so I bumped it up to my full right.” Aerial_Small

“112?! How’s that work? My farm is bigger than your place, and I only get 20! Well Lisa, I think you’re taking too much and you better turn it down. There’s no way you get that much!”

“Will, when we bought this place from the Sarco’s 4 years ago, they showed me in the deed where the ranch gets up to 112. It’s right there in the deed…. Do you and Roberta have a deed or something, Will? How ’bout me and Steve come over and talk about it. Joe down on the bottom told me there’s been water wars here, and I don’t want hassle if we can avoid it.” Screenshot 2016-04-17 at 08.38.49

“Sure, come on over, we may end up talking to lawyers but let’s see if we can figure it out first.”

The next morning, Steve and Lisa went over and dropped in on Will and Roberta. Lisa showed Will right in the deed where, sure enough, it said” …all water rights appurtenant to the parcel, in the amount of 112 gallons per minute…” They also showed a Permit from the Water Board, for the same amount.

Will and Roberta laid out a copy of their 1882 filing with the county, where it showed their ranch, one of the original ranches in the decree, with a water right of 20 miners inches.
“Lisa, wait a minute, you guys divert in gallons? How does that match up with miners inches?? Most everyone around here diverts in miners inches, not gallons.”

“When we bought the place, Joe Sarco showed us how our farm was subdivided from the original parcel. Will, Roberta, you guys know, his farm was split into 4 equal parcels. When he did that, and the water rights were divided up equally too. Well, the other 3 parcels got 111, and ours got 112 gallons per minute, almost equal.”

“Well, how much is gallons per minute, in miners inches. Steve, do you know?”

“I have no idea. I suppose we can figure it out. I went and look at our box, and your headgate, Will, and it looks like you are diverting several times as much as we are.”

There are all kinds of ways to measure flow and storage. Flow rates for agricultural diversions in California include gallons per minute (gpm), miners inches, inches of head, shares, heads, and acre-feet per day (AF/day). Take a look at the following table from http://www.jennessent.com/unit_conv/manual/no_frame/flow1.htm – there is no lack of ways to measure flow! jennessent.com_FlowMeasUnits

Some of these are very precise, and some not so precise. “Accurate” is different than “precise”, as STEM graduates are fond of pointing out. A measurement of 4.25 gpm is very precise, to the second decimal…but if the actual flow going down the ditch is really 9 gpm, then the reading of 4.25 gpm is nowhere near accurate.

Anyway, how much is a gallon per minute, and a miners inch? Let’s put them in the standard units we use for agricultural diversions today. Volumes are measured in AF, or one acre of land with water one foot deep. Flow is measured in cubic feet per second (CFS). Here are the relationships:

1 CFS = 40 miners inches (except sometimes it’s 50 miners inches, and there are several other variations. Check out https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=dr%20hydro%20miners%20inches….)

1 CFS = 450 gpm = 2 AF/day

More precisely, 1 CFS = 448.84 gpm = 1.983 AF/day, but using the rounded values above is plenty precise enough for field measurements.

What about Steve’s and Lisa’s 112 gpm, and Will’s and Roberta’s 20 miners inches? It turns out they’re both right, fortunately. 112 gpm is 0.25 cfs, close enough for horse shoes, and 20 miners inches is 0.50 cfs at the 40-miners-inches-per-cfs standard. So, Will and Roberta do have twice as big a right as Steve and Lisa, which is easy to see once the units agree!

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