GLOSSARY Acre-foot:  Amount of water it takes to cover one acre of land (average football field) to the depth of twelve inches, or 325,851 gallons. The average California family uses 2/3 of an acre-foot of water each year (afa = acre-ft per annum). The average crop uses three acre-feet of water in a growing season.   Adjudication: When a water right related suit is filed with the court, the court may refer the case to the State Water Board for investigation.  The Water Code provides for the initiation of proceedings for the determination of all rights (statutory adjudication) to the water of any stream, lake or other body of water except percolating groundwater.  A petition signed by one or more claimants of a right to the use of water from the source involved can be filed with the State Water Board. Ad Valorem Financing Method Amount of money paid into fund in proportion of assessed valuation and therefore entitled to beneficial use in same proportion as their payments into said fund. Appropriation:  Based on the proposition that there is water which is unappropriated which is not presently being used and which, if flowing on unrestricted, would merely pass on to the ocean and be "wasted".  Only way to acquire rights to surface waters. Appropriative Rights:  First water rights to be recognized by the courts. An outgrowth of mining customs. Based on first in time is first in right.  First person to divert water and put it to beneficial use has a superior claim to that amount of water over subsequent users.  Lost by nonuse.  Can be measured and transferable; place and purpose of use and place of diversion may be changed as long as others are not injured. Aquifer A porous geologic formation that stores, transmits and yields significant amounts of water to wells and springs. Average day peak month (adpm):  Average daily demand during the peak month. Used as the standard unit of transmission capacity used in the Agreement for Water Supply.  Water requirements and entitlements are stated in terms of average day peak month. Basin A groundwater reservoir defined by the overlying land surface and underlying aquifers that contain water stored in the reservoir. California Water Law:  Plural system derived from English common law, mining customs and Spanish and Mexican precedents. California Environmental Quality Act: Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq promulgated by the Secretary of Resources. Enacted in 1970 but had no practical consequence until the Friends of Mammoth v. Board of Supervisors.  California Supreme Court decision held that CEQA applied to governmental approvals of private projects. Patterned after the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Changes and Transfers: Holders of appropriative rights may change the point of diversion, place of use or purpose of use after public notice of the proposed change, so long as others are not injured by the change and the requirements of CEQA are met.  Transfers can be both temporary and permanent, may be approved after public notice and where change would not result in substantial injury to any legal user of water and would not unreasonably affect fish, wildlife, or other instream beneficial use. Correlative Rights:  Groundwater rights are subject to reasonable use and correlative rights.  Owners of land overlying a groundwater basin are each entitled to a fair and just proportion of the available supply and an incident of ownership of the land.  The rights are not quantified but are correlative with the reasonable needs of others overlying the same basin.  Any surplus can be appropriated for other than overlying on a first in time, first in right basis.  If the surplus ceases, the appropriate use must cease.  Groundwater use is unregulated by state and is not subject to SWRCB jurisdiction.  Management districts can be formed; 11 exist throughout California. Cubic Foot Per Second (cfs):  Rate of flow passing any point equal to a volume of one cubic foot of water every second. One Cubic Foot Per Second Equivalents: = 7.48 U.S. gallons per second (gps) = 646,317 gallons per day (gpd) = 1.98 acre-feet per day 180 cubic feet per second = 116.3 million gallons per day. Defined Benefit Financial Method Each component is considered separately.  Traditional theory of taxation which states that tax burdens should be allocated among tax payers in accordance with the benefits they receive from the provision of public goods. Diversion In relation to water rights it is the alteration of the natural water flow in a drainage system.  Includes the collection of water in a reservoir before it reaches a main stream channel and includes the pumping from the stream or the damming of the stream. Dual System or Plural System: California's system of water rights has two doctrinal bases of rights to use of surface waters: riparian and appropriative. Entitlement water:  Contracted water Enhancement:  Improving a system or habitat by restoring its natural functions and equilibrium. Groundwater Rights: Case law and the California Water Code recognizes three legal classifications: subterranean streams, underflow of surface streams and percolating groundwater. Subterranean and underflow are subject to the laws of surface waters and a permit from the State Water Board is required for appropriation.  Percolating groundwater may be used in two manners: landowners use it on an equal and correlative basis; surplus groundwater may be appropriated for use on non-overlying lands if such use will not result in an overdraft condition.  Groundwater appropriation is subordinate to the correlative rights of overlying users.  A permit is not required to use percolating groundwater. Net Safe Yield The amount of water that can be supplied on an ongoing basis with no reduction in demand during the worst drought of record. Operational yield The amount of water that can be supplied in most years, but not in very dry years, when a reduction in demand is required. Permeability Capacity of soil or other geologic formation to transmit water. Prescription:  The acquisition of a water right by adverse possession.  Secured by appropriation.  Is subordinate and subject to all prior vested rights except when the limitation may be removed under certain circumstance by continuous use adverse to prior rights for five years and failure of the owners of the prior rights to file legal action to protect themselves.  An appropriative or riparian claim can ripen into a prescriptive right when the use is continuous and uninterrupted for five years.  The use must be open and notorious, exclusive, hostile and adverse to the title of the prior owner and an invasion of the prior owners right.  A well-established rule is that a prescriptive water right ordinarily cannot be acquired against an upstream user.  Some doubts about its continuing validity as applied to surface water.   Program Environmental Impact Report Purpose is to allow the Lead Agency to characterize the overall program as the project being approved at that time.  It allows all permitting and interested agencies to examine the overall effects of the proposed course of action.  Such documents contain broad, general environmental analysis that can serve as an information basis that the agencies can consult prior to approving subsequent projects within the program. Project Environmental Impact Report Examines the environmental impacts of a specific development project and examines all phases of the project including planning, construction and operation (Guidelines Section 15161).  The only time a program EIR can function as a project EIR is when the individual activities are fully analyzed in the program EIR. Public Trust Rights: Protection of resources held in common.  No one has a vested right to use water in a manner harmful to the states water.  State has the duty to exercise continued supervision over the trust for the benefit of the people. Both prior to and after issuance of permits and licensees, the Tate must ensure an adequate level of protection for the public trust resources. Pueblo Rights:  Los Angeles and San Diego have pueblo rights that are paramount to all other rights and that expand to accommodate the needs of the municipalities and their inhabitants within the original pueblo area. Rediversion:  Rediversion of water rather than direct diversion which would not adversely affect junior appropriators who otherwise might have a basis to protest that the increase could result in injury to their vested rights. Riparian:  Plant community succession naturally occurring along the bank of a natural waterway such as a river or stream.  riparian zones support diverse and abundant terrestrial wildlife species, protect stream banks and adjacent land from erosion, and contribute significantly to aquatic communities by providing shade, cover from predators, nutrients, a buffer from nearby land use activities, and a filter for overland soil erosion. Riparian Water rights:  Rights to a specific amount of water, but a shared right.  Right of the owner of land abutting a watercourse to use the natural flow of water for beneficial purposes on her land.  Limited to the quantity reasonably necessary for use on the riparian land.  Is not transferable; is neither gained by use nor lost by disuse. Is not quantified nor under the jurisdiction of the State Water Resources Control Board. Stakeholders:  Anyone who lives or uses a watershed or has land management, administrative or other responsibilities or interests in it. Statutory adjudication Process by which the comprehensive determination of all water rights in a stream system is made.  This happens if a claimant petitions the State Board for an adjudication and the Board finds the action necessary and in the public interest.  The California Supreme Court has held that claimants or petitioners can include not only water users but also those seeking recognition of public trust values on a streamside basis. Stream Stabilization:  The coordination of hydraulics, hydrology, physics, biology, and geology to establish a stable stream system in equilibrium with the natural forces action on and in the stream Sustainable Land Use:  Use of low input land management systems and concepts that leave the land in the same, or better condition than when the land use started.  Land management measures that can continue indefinitely without resource depletion. Surplus water:    Water beyond the entitlement. Unit Water Charge Financial Method Establish water pool and project fund using a joint powers agreement, pay in a uniform unit charge for each acre foot to which the party has a right.  Rate to be adjusted annually to meet expenses. Water Commission Act:  Adopted in 1913 and forms the basis of present day Water Code.  Pre-1914 appropriative rights are still valid but are not subject to the jurisdiction of the State Water Resources Control Board. Water Districts:   Local management users cooperatives which are concerned, chiefly, with the collection, distribution, use and contracting for surface and ground water. Water Right: Is a right of use, not of ownership of the water in its natural state.  Law of Water Rights define who may use water and under what circumstances. Watershed: A geographic area from which water, sediments, and dissolved materials are drained by a river and its tributaries to a common outlet. Separated from adjacent watersheds by a ridge or drainage divide.  Subwatersheds can be found within watersheds.  Usually take their name from the waterbody which drains them. Also called a drainage basin.