Water Use Report Violation Notices Coming Soon

With California Ag Today, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Are you a water rightsholder? Have you filed your Annual Water Diversion and Use reports for Water Year 2023? If you answered “yes” then “no,” a notice of violation could be on the way.

It’s just been announced that the Division of Water Rights will be sending Notices of Violation in the next few weeks for those who have not submitted the annual reports or statements. Those were due before February 1.

According to the Board, if you submit your past-due report promptly, you will not receive the notice and potential future enforcement action. There is a help website that has been set up in an attempt to walk rightsholders through the process. You can access that at https://shorturl.at/xNY28.

A sidenote on the topic of water, the Department of Water Resources in the state says their April snow survey shows above average snowpack for the second straight season. DWR’s electronic readings from 130 stations placed throughout the state indicate that the statewide snowpack’s snow water equivalent is 28.6 inches, or 110 percent of the April 1 average, a significant improvement from just 28 percent of average on January 1.

The focus now shifts to forecasting spring snowmelt runoff and capturing as much of that water as possible for future use.