The Yuba Accord is a landmark multi-agency agreement that balances the interests of environmental groups, agriculture, water agencies and hydroelectric operators relying on water from the Yuba River north of Sacramento. A tributary of the Feather River, the Yuba is the fourth-largest river in the Sacramento River watershed.

Pieced together after two decades of lawsuits, the Yuba Accord allows for freshwater flows to support native fish while also providing water for hydropower, transfers and irrigation.

The controversy dates to the 1960s when the Yuba County Water Agency (later renamed Yuba Water Agency) began building New Bullards Bar Dam on the lower Yuba. Completed in 1970, the 645-foot-tall dam was built to generate hydropower, help with flood control and provide water to local growers. However, it also put native chinook salmon and steelhead at risk.

In response, environmental groups started filing lawsuits in the 1980s. The Yuba Water Agency and its water users, along with state and federal water agencies, reached settlement agreements, known as the Yuba Accord. It took effect in 2008 after two years as a pilot project.

The accord has three separate but related agreements:

The Fisheries Agreement set significantly higher minimum instream flow requirements during certain times of the year to benefit wild fish in the lower Yuba, the 24-mile stretch between Englebright Dam and the Feather River near Marysville.

The Water Purchases Agreement established a long-term water transfer program in which Yuba Water Agency sells water already released from New Bullards Bar Reservoir for the benefit of fish to others in the state who need it. The agency must also release 60,000 acre-feet annually for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water transfers are capped at 200,000 acre-feet a year.

The Conjunctive Use Agreements provide groundwater for irrigating local farmland during dry years to ensure the Yuba River has enough water to sustain fish.

The Yuba Water Agency is working to extend the water transfer program beyond its expiration date of December 31, 2025.

Updated September 2024