State Water Board adopts fee rules; pauses new increases by using fund reserves and adjusts water‑rights fee language

The State Water Resources Control Board on Sept. 16 voted unanimously to adopt its annual fee regulations for water quality and water rights, preserving most current fee rates for the coming year by drawing on higher‑than‑expected fund reserves and making limited regulatory clarifications.

Deputy Director John Russell and David Ciccarelli, chief of the Revenue and Fee Branch, told the board that although ordinary indexing would have pushed many fees up 2–3 percent, the division proposed using reserves to offset increases this year because implementation of prior vacancy and operating reductions has temporarily boosted fund balances. David Ciccarelli described three technical updates to the water quality fee schedule: clarifying that the invoice‑date fee schedule applies to invoiced amounts, renaming several categories from “special flat fee” to “activity special fee,” and correcting a mathematical discrepancy that increased the maximum fee for certain construction/linear project filings by about $88 (from…