CalMatters: Which bills will Gavin Newsom sign into new California laws?
SB 389, by Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Redondo Beach, spells out the state’s powers to investigate even the longest-standing claims to water from California’s rivers and streams. Under the state’s byzantine, Gold Rush-era water rights system, so-called “senior water rights” holders — those who have claims to water flowing past their property or that pre-date a 1914 law — use about a third of the surface water supply. They are not required to have permits or licenses, and the state’s power to investigate them has been murky.
