California Code of Regulations › Title 23 - Waters › Division 3 - State Water Resources Control Board and Regional Water Quality Control Boards › Chapter 22 - State Policy for Water Quality Control › Section 2921 - Water Quality Control Policy for Maintaining Instream Flows in Northern California Coastal Streams

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
On May 4, 2010, the State Water Resources Control Board
				  adopted Resolution No. 2010-0021, adopting the Water Quality Control Policy for
				  Maintaining Instream Flows in Northern California Coastal Streams (North Coast
				  Instream Flow Policy) in accordance with California Water Code section
				  1259.4. On
				  October 16, 2012, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted Resolution
				  No. 2012-0058, setting aside Resolution No. 2010-0021, thereby vacating the
				  Board's adoption of the Policy, as required by the Alameda County Superior
				  Court in
Living Rivers Council v. State Water Resources Control
				  Board
(Sup. Ct. Alameda County, 2012, No. RG10-543923). On October 22,
				  2013, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted Resolution No. 2013-0035,
				  readopting the North Coast Instream Flow Policy without any significant
				  changes.
The North Coast Instream Flow Policy establishes principles
				  and guidelines for maintaining instream flows for the protection of fishery
				  resources, while minimizing water supply impacts on other beneficial uses of
				  water, such as irrigation, municipal use, and domestic use. The geographic
				  scope of the North Coast Instream Flow Policy encompasses coastal streams from
				  the Mattole River to San Francisco and coastal streams entering northern San
				  Pablo Bay, and extends to five counties: Marin, Sonoma, and portions of Napa,
				  Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties. The North Coast Instream Flow Policy applies
				  to applications to appropriate water, small domestic use, small irrigation use,
				  and livestock stockpond registrations, and water right petitions.
The North Coast Instream Flow Policy does not establish
				  specific instream flow requirements for particular rivers or streams. Nor does
				  the North Coast Instream Flow Policy approve any particular water diversion
				  projects, or specify the terms and conditions that will be incorporated into
				  water right permits, licenses, or registrations. Instead, the North Coast
				  Instream Flow Policy establishes guidelines for evaluating the potential
				  impacts of water diversion projects on stream hydrology and biological
				  resources. The North Coast Instream Flow Policy includes principles to ensure
				  that new water appropriations and changes to existing water right permits and
				  licenses will not affect the instream flows needed for fish spawning, migration
				  and rearing, or the flows needed to maintain natural flow variability, which
				  protects the various biological functions that are dependent on that
				  variability. The North Coast Instream Flow Policy also contains principles to
				  ensure that migration paths to spawning and rearing habitats are not
				  blocked.
The North Coast Instream Flow Policy includes the following
				  elements:
* Measures designed to be protective of fishery resources
				  throughout the policy area, including a season during which diversions may
				  occur, a formula for establishing minimum bypass flows past a diversion, and
				  limits on the maximum cumulative water diversion rate in a watershed.
* Guidance for site-specific studies to evaluate whether
				  alternative measures would be protective of fishery resources.
* Guidance regarding the analysis of water availability
				  required in order for the State Water Board to determine whether unappropriated
				  water is available to supply a proposed water diversion project. (See Wat.
				  Code, §
									1375, subd. (d).) The guidance
				  includes procedures for evaluating whether a proposed water diversion, in
				  combination with existing diversions in a watershed, may affect instream flows
				  needed for the protection of fishery resources.
* Limits on the construction of new onstream dams and
				  measures to ensure that approvals of onstream dams do not adversely affect
				  habitat needs of fishery resources.
* Review procedures for pending water right applications and
				  petitions.
* Options for watershed-based approaches that allow cost
				  sharing among diverters to evaluate environmental impacts of diversions on a
				  watershed basis rather than individually, and to allow coordination of
				  diversions.
* Water right enforcement provisions, including compliance
				  assurance provisions, criteria for establishing enforcement priorities, factors
				  to consider in setting administrative civil liability amounts, and descriptions
				  of enforcement actions that could be taken.
* Provisions for case-by-case exceptions from policy
				  provisions.
* Provisions for monitoring and reporting of diversions and
				  streamflows, and policy effectiveness review.
1. New section
				  filed 9-22-2010 summarizing State Water Control Board Resolution No. 2010-0021,
				  adopted 5-4-2010; approved by OAL pursuant to Government Code section
				  11353 on
				  9-22-2010 (Register 2010, No. 39).
2. Readopted section, as amended,
				  summarizing Policy for Maintaining Instream Flows in Northern California
				  Coastal Streams, Resolution No. 2013-0035, adopted 10-22-2013 by the State
				  Water Resources Control Board; approved by OAL and effective 2-4-2014 pursuant
				  to Government Code section
				  11353;
				  filed with the Secretary of State 2-4-2014 (Register 2014, No. 6). The Policy
				  was ordered vacated by the Superior Court in Living Rivers Council v. State
				  Water Resources Control Board (Sup. Ct. Alameda County, 2012, No. RG10-543923)
				  and was vacated under Resolution 2012-0058, adopted 10-16-2012 by the State
				  Water Resources Control Board.