Description of Water Rights and Usage. The Enrolled Property is irrigated with groundwater or precipitation. There is a production well with approximately a 1330 GPM flow rate, supplying about five- thousand feet of pressurized pipe for wheel-lines. There are four points of diversion on the Enrolled Property. One of these is currently the irrigation diversion for the neighboring Hidden Valley Ranch (HVR), Division of Water Rights (DWR) Point of Diversion (POD) 158. The other three diversions historically diverted irrigation, stock, and domestic water for the Enrolled Property, but are currently non-active. The soils of the Enrolled Property are porous and the long, unlined ditches are inefficient. The Enrolled Property decreed water rights to the use of the natural flow of the Shasta River are described in paragraphs 356, 357, and 358 of the Shasta River Adjudication Proceeding, Judgement and Decree entered December 30, 1932 (Shasta River Decree). The Shasta River Decree establishes the relative rights of the various claimants according to the doctrine of prior appropriation. The Enrolled Property has an “In Lieu” or “Prior Rights” Agreement with Montague Water Conservation District (MWCD). The Permittee, continues an agreement, made by the owner in the 1920’s, with the MWCD to be furnished storage waters from the reservoir (i.e. Lake Shastina) to the lands of the property owner for the loss of use of the natural flow of the river that was used for irrigation prior to the building of the MWCD dam in that era. The amount “shall be superior to the rights of the District,” and shall be delivered “at such times and in such amounts as ordered” by the property owner during each calendar year until the total is delivered. The owner of the land currently called the Hole in the Ground Ranch recorded a similar agreement with MWCD. Currently, the “In Lieu” amount of up to 924 acre- feet is used on the Hole in the Ground Ranch, which is also owned by the Permittee. The Permittee has reviewed the records for the water rights for the Enrolled Property and certifies the use described herein is considered otherwise legal under the Decree and the Watermaster District. Outside of the summer irrigation season, the Enrolled Property continues to exercise the Adjudicated winter diversion right for 0.5 cfs of stock water. The stock watering right is used by cattle at designated and protected watering access lanes on the Shasta River. Table 1 shows the water use on the Enrolled Property. The information presented in ...
Description of Water Rights and Usage. The Permittee utilizes two shared points of diversion from the Shasta River for irrigation: The Novy, Zenkus, Rice Riparian Diversion, and the Xxxxxxx Ditch Association Diversion, for a total maximum irrigation volume of approximately 4,131 AF per year.
Description of Water Rights and Usage. The Enrolled Property has a 2.98 cubic feet per second (cfs) water right, which is included in the Shasta River Decree and summarized in the water rights table below. The current point of diversion is located on Lower Parks Creek, 1.5-miles upstream from the confluence with the Shasta River on the neighboring Hole in the Ground property. The diversion structure consists of an earthen dam with two corrugated metal pipes, which are blocked with flashboards during the irrigation season. The water is backed up behind the dam to gain the force (head) needed to convey the diverted water down approximately 7,000 feet of open, unlined diversion ditch. This ditch goes to a concrete lined ditch, to the place of use. The water is then distributed throughout the Enrolled Property via a series of open, unlined ditches and conveyed by flood irrigation to the pastures. There is also a small pump that lifts the water from the main ditch to the upper pasture, where it is distributed via a series of open ditches. The current diversion, including the dam and ditch is maintained by the Hole in the Ground Ranch by agreement between the two Permittees and water mastered by the Xxxxx Valley and Shasta Valley Watermaster District. The previous water master did allow for periodic “combine and rotate” management of the diversion, where the diversion amount is increased for a shorter period of time, as long as no other user is harmed (see Paragraph 1 of the Shasta River Decree). The water master schedule does not indicate a winter stock water right for this ranch. The map included below illustrates the place of use as stipulated in the Shasta River Decree and the DWR irrigated acreage coverage. Diversion #/Water Source Permit/Adjudicated/ Filed Water Use Statement Description Season Duration Total Ac- ft per season diverted Acreage Irrigated with Diversion Average Days per Season diverted 237 2.98 cfs Xxxxxxx Diversion April 1 - Oct 1 975.3 ac-ft 165 165 Figure 2. Water Rights
Description of Water Rights and Usage. The Enrolled Property uses a combination of adjudicated, appropriative, and riparian rights to water for irrigation of permanent pastures and stock watering (Table 2). The adjudicated water rights to the use of the natural flow of Parks Creek and various springs are described in paragraphs 89 through 99 of the Shasta River Adjudication Proceeding, Judgement and Decree entered December 30, 1932 (Shasta River Decree). The Shasta River Decree establishes the relative rights of the various claimants according to the doctrine of prior appropriation. The Enrolled Property’s adjudicated rights on Parks Creek range in priority date from 1854 to 1889 with a combined flow rate of about 16 cfs and a period of use from March 1st through November 1st each year. Actual use under these rights usually begins sometime after March 1st depending on spring weather conditions. However, because these rights tend to be of lower priority relative to other upstream Parks Creek rights, streamflow onto the Enrolled Property generally only lasts until late May or, on occasion into July, dropping off sharply as snowmelt diminishes and upstream senior diverters take their share. Whether sufficient flow to divert from Parks Creek lasts into the spring or early summer is based on hydrologic conditions each year. There are five actively managed diversions (POD) on Parks Creek (Figure 2 and Table 2). Historically, at the time of the adjudication, the Enrolled Property used as many as ten separate PODs off the stream. Between the current Parks #4 and Parks #5, five PODs are not actively managed, meaning there is currently no functional infrastructure to divert water at those PODs and the right is used at active PODs, per the provisions of the Decree. The present-day configuration of the PODs and ditches is not necessarily the most efficient but reflects a compromise between the cost of replacing diversions susceptible to destabilizing flood flows, as often occurs in a snowmelt dominated stream like upper Parks Creek, and the value of a water supply that diminishes to un-divertible before the middle of the growing season. There are three adjudicated POD from spring sources on the Enrolled Property (Figure 2 and Table 2). An unnamed spring is part of the water held in Upper Xxxxxx Reservoir, east of Parks Creek in the south half of Section 8 (T42N, R05W). The reservoir did not exist at the time of the adjudication and the water right for up to 0.45 cfs (from DWR POD #223) was conveyed in a di...
