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Karuk Tribe, ELF, and PCFFA/IFR Petition to Make Scott River Streamflow Protection Permanent

On May 23, 2023, ELF filed a petition on behalf of itself, the Karuk Tribe of California, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and the Institute for Fisheries Resources asking the State Water Resources Control Board to establish a permanent regulation protecting streamflows in the Scott River. The petition asks the State Board to move from emergency management of this crucial river to a long-term, sustainable approach that protects the public’s right to a healthy ecosystem in this culturally and economically vital river.

The State Board decided to consider the petition and will hold a hearing on August 15, 2023. Comments can be submitted until noon Pacific time on July 20, 2023. By moving forward with this petition, the State Board is taking an enormous step toward protection for this crucial river.

For decades, ranchers and growers have discharged warm and polluted tailwater and removed shade-providing vegetation along the Scott and Shasta Rivers. And the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has proposed to renew a regulatory program without any changes that has permitted ongoing failures to meet water quality standards. ELF, along with Friends of the Shasta River, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, and Save California Salmon, submitted comments opposing the renewal of this program on January 9, 2023.

Comments on Renewal of Scott and Shasta River Agricultural Waivers, Order No. 2023-0005, January 9, 2023

On June 21, 2022, in a momentous victory for North Coast fisheries and the people who rely on them, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to begin the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Report for new agricultural wells across the County. This important step is the result of ELF’s decade-long advocacy for the County to acknowledge the harm that overextraction of groundwater has on the Scott, Shasta, and other key salmon-bearing rivers. While much remains to do, the County’s action paves the way for a new era of science-based, balanced management of the County’s water resources.

On July 1, 2021, ELF filed a petition on behalf of itself and the Karuk Tribe requesting that the California State Water Resources Control Board fulfill its duty under the public trust doctrine and exercise its authority under the Governor’s drought proclamation to set an emergency minimum flow standard for the Scott River. Low flows as a result of overextraction of water are driving salmon populations to extinction. Swift action by the State Board can protect this culturally and ecologically precious resource for the future.

On August 17, 2021 the State Board adopted Emergency Regulations for the Scott and Shasta Rivers. The Emergency Regulations went into effect on August 30, 2021. Curtailment orders have now been sent to diverters and pumpers in the Scott River basin.

Industrial dairy concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are one of the biggest sources of nitrate pollution in the Central Valley—pollution that leaves hundreds of thousands of Californians without safe drinking water. But state regulators have failed to set rules governing the newest and biggest of these facilities. On February 1, 2022, ELF took action to bring these facilities—all dairies expanded or established since 2005—into compliance with the law.

On March 28, 2018, ELF filed suit against the California State Water Resources Control Board, asking the court to invalidate a general permit for agriculture in the Central Valley that permits growers to keep key water quality data secret. Nitrate emitted from irrigated agriculture contaminates drinking water wells throughout the state.

On January 10, 2022, ELF filed a petition with the State Water Resources Control Board challenging the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Groundwater Protection Values program approval. This program will be the basis for groundwater pollution targets, but it bases those targets on secret data, violating state law. ELF requested that the State Board overturn the approval.