2492•
• /Q- 2-3 502
STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD
WORKSHOP SESSION - WATER RIGHTS
JULY 30, 1980
ITEM: 11
SUBJECT: MONTHLY REVIEW OF WATER RIGHT ACTIVITIES
DIS-
CUSSION:
(PEI 10.5)
(1) Lake Tahoe Basin. No permits have been issued on pending appli-
cations to appropriate water within the Lake Tahoe Basin since
February 11,1970. Eight applications are now pending. In
addition, 27 petitions for extension are pending. One petition
for change in place of use is pending. A few limited extensions
of time have been granted since 1970.
The water rights situation is unusually complex in the Tahoe
Basin because of (a) the proposed interstate compact between
California and Nevada which has been adopted by both States,
but not ratified by Congress; (b) protests and threat of liti-
gation on behalf of the Pyramid Lake Tribe of Paiute Indians;
(c) impact of the California Environmental Quality Act;
(d). effect of adoption of proposed 208 Water Quality Plan for
the Lake Tahoe Basin and proposed CTRPA general plans.
As indicated in the attached notice to water users dated
July 15, 1976, the Board has previously suspended issuance of
new permits. Little progress has been made toward a suitable
environmental impact report.
Individual environmental documents by applicants and permittees
would not properly reveal the true impact of allowing the
extensions and granting the new permits. Rather, it appears
more appropriate to prepare a Basin -wide document which would
take into consideration not only the developments proposed by
the various applications but also the limitations upon such
development that may result from adoption of the 208 plan and
the CTRPA Plan.
The staff intention has been to act on the pending applications
and petitions as soon as feasible. However, at a meeting on
July 14 with Mr. Attwater, Mr. Pettit and the managers of the
three California districts on Lake Tahoe, the managers strongly
urged that adoption of the 208 Plan and CTRPA General Plan would
determine the extent of allowable development and thus greatly
reduce the size and complexity of any environmental document
required for the water .rights actions. Recent correspondence
from the districts is attached. .Further, the availability of
unappropriated water is._.uncertain until the Supreme Court of
the.United States rules on the validity of the claims of the.
Pyramid Lake Tribe of Paiute Indians.
POLICY None.
ISSUE:
FISCAL None.
IMPACT:
STAFF This is an information item. No Board action is required.
RECOM-
MENDATION:
Policy Revi ew.o��'f
Fiscal Review
Legal Review �./l
-2-
•
9Wy
• •
o Make sure copies of this correspondence and any future
correspondence a.--littire—err--th±s go to Imperial Irrigation
District as well as the other parties.
Marie Stetson of the California Municipal Utilities Association
appeared. She indicated that Imperial had not been notified of
this agenda item until she contacted them. She also indicated
that both DWR and the Service is conducting an investigation and
the District is cooperating with those agencies.
Review of Water Rights Activities (Lake Tahoe)
There was practically no discussion of this item. The Board members
have copies of the letters from John Hassenplug and William Briner.
There appeared to be no objection on the part of the Board to a
possible deferral of action on the Water Right report; however, they
pointed out that the Board will not be making any approvals in the
interim.
12. Permitted Application 16305 - Knights Landing Ridge Cut
This item is approved for the Board meeting with the following
conditions:
o Paragraph 10 of the order should be amended to provide alternate
representative in case the primary is not available and should
confirm that the intent is that we be -able to contact somebody
who will have authority to act.
Mr. Mitchell requested consideration of a term pertaining to water
conservation. Since we have nothing specific in the record as yet,
we discussed the possibility for a term which would reserve juris-
..:.�;. diction. I agreed that we would send Mr. Mitchell a copy of a term
similar to that used in the East Yolo decision so he can see if he
considers it advantageous to.inc_lude something similar. We will
have to get a rapid turnaround time on that in order to make the
_Board meeting.
Excerpt from.Follow-up_Notes
from 7/30/80 Workshop and
Special Board Meeting .