1
Use versus face value
Reported water against the paper ceiling, year by year.
Pick the state, a watershed, or a county. Wet and dry years are shaded.
Open the chartWhere the gap between paper and river sits
The State Water Board’s record holds both halves: the face value written on every right and what each holder reported taking. Four figures from it account for most of the distance between the paper total and the water.
…
of California’s water rights, by face value, are for hydropower (…). Very little of that water is consumed; almost all of it turns a turbine and returns to the river.
…
more belongs to multi-purpose permits, nearly all of them Central Valley Project and State Water Project, whose water is counted again by every right that takes it downstream.
…
is the face value of rights held for irrigation alone. Those rights reported … in water year 2024, … of their own face value and a small share of the statewide total.
…
was reported in critical water year …, against … in wet …, when … was diverted to refill reservoirs. Diversions rise and fall with the river, and in dry years the Board curtails the newest rights first.
Reported water follows the year
Statewide, best available, by water year; shading is the Sacramento Valley year type
Reported waterWetAbove normalBelow normalDryCritical
Face value is a ceiling written on paper. A reported figure is a measurement the holder filed. Totals count the same water more than once as it is diverted, returned, and diverted again on its way downstream, so a statewide total is larger than the water removed from rivers. How these figures are screened .
How a water right works
California runs two systems at once. Riparian rights belong to land that touches a stream and need no permit. Appropriative rights have needed a State Water Board permit since December 19, 1914; a right in use before that date never entered the permit system. When a river runs short, the Board curtails in reverse order of seniority: the newest permits stop first, the oldest claims last. A post-1914 right that goes unused for five years can revert to the public. The full state page, with the statutes and an eleven-state comparison, is at Waters of the West: California water rights.
Look it up for any watershed or county
2
Seniority ladder
Who is senior to whom in a watershed.
Rights by the decade of their priority date, with the 1914 line marked.
Open the ladder3
Explorer
Every watershed and county in one table.
Sort by rights, reported water, or face value; download as a spreadsheet.
Open the explorerBriefings
Sites Reservoir water rights proceedings
In preparation: the Sites Project Authority’s water right before the State Water Board, the protests, the hearing, and what the permit terms mean on the Sacramento River. Scope of the briefing.
For authorized users
Rights drill-down
Individual rights with their holder, priority date, face value, and every yearly filing with its screening flags. Sign in with a toolkit account.