Shasta Waterkeeper is a program of Water Climate Trust that protects rivers and streams around Mt. Shasta in Northern California. We focus on the Scott and Shasta Rivers, which flow into the Klamath River, and the upper Sacramento River watershed, which flows south to San Francisco Bay.

Excessive and wasteful water diversions leave these waterways with too little water for the fish, wildlife and people who depend on them. Most California rivers lack instream flow requirements (rules that leave a minimum quantity of water in rivers) strong enough to prevent extinction. Rather than paying water right holders to divert less, we advocate for enforceable requirements that support endangered species recovery and Tribal subsistence fishing.

In response to our 2024 legal petition, the California Water Board agreed to develop permanent instream flow requirements for the Scott and Shasta Rivers. Temporary requirements stay in place until 2031 or until permanent ones take effect. We helped commission scientists to draft “recovery flow” recommendations, which the Water Board agreed to incorporate. Now we are working to ensure the final requirements prevent extinction and restore healthy fish populations, setting a precedent for rivers statewide.

Strong requirements are harder to win in the Sacramento River watershed, which supplies the politically powerful Central Valley agricultural industry. Governor Newsom supports ineffective “Voluntary Agreements” and the proposed Sites Reservoir, a harmful new dam that would also draw water from the Trinity River, the Klamath’s largest tributary. We are a formal party in the Water Board’s hearing on water rights for Sites Reservoir.

We hope to compel California’s next governor to oppose harmful dams and support strong instream flow requirements. These requirements don’t have to harm existing water users. They become achievable when California eliminates the most wasteful water uses, expands water conservation and recycling, and stores water in underground aquifers rather than new reservoirs that lose water to evaporation and degrade water quality.