Data and Databases - Surface Water
This topic includes information about surface water allocation and use, monitoring data related to ambient surface water quality and discharges to surface water, and an identification of waters determined by the Water Boards to be impaired and unable to support designated beneficial uses.
The Basin Plan Portal provides information about beneficial uses throughout California. Beneficial uses are the resources, services, and qualities of California’s aquatic systems. The Water Board’s mission is to preserve, enhance, and restore water quality for the protection of all uses. Swimming, fishing, spawning habitat, protected species habitat, agricultural use, tribal and cultural use, and municipal and domestic supply are all examples of beneficial uses. Each use represents a different type of benefit provided by California’s watersheds, and each Regional Water Board has defined and designated beneficial uses unique to their waters. The Basin Plan Portal Map is a clickable, zoomable map that allows the user to select a waterbody and display the uses in a pop-up window or download in a tabular format. The underlying datasets are available on the Water Boards GIS server.
Electronic Water Rights Information Management System (eWRIMS) Database
The eWRIMS Database System provides information about water rights throughout California. It includes information on Statements of Water Diversion and Use that have been filed by water diverters, as well as registrations, certificates, and water right permits and licenses that have been issued by the State Water Resources Control Board and its predecessors. You can search for water rights by several criteria, including the water right owner's name, watershed, stream system, and county. In addition, the eWRIMS Web Mapping Application provides the spatial location of water rights throughout California. For assistance please visit the eWRIMS Help Center, or contact the Division of Water Rights at 916-341-5300 or ewrims@waterboards.ca.gov.
California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN)
CEDEN is a central location to find and share information about California’s water bodies, including streams, lakes, rivers, and the coastal ocean. Many groups in California monitor water quality, aquatic habitat, and wildlife health to ensure good stewardship of our ecological resources, and CEDEN aggregates this data and makes it accessible to environmental managers and the public. For assistance, please contact the CEDEN Administrator at ceden@waterboards.ca.gov.
California Integrated Water Quality System (CIWQS) Enforcement Reports
CIWQS is a web-based relational database for core regulatory data. The CIWQS Public Reports page allows the public to see information on the facilities regulated by the Water Boards, as well as violation and enforcement data. For assistance, please contact the CIWQS Help Center at ciwqs@waterboards.ca.gov or 866-792-4977.
303(d) Reports
Select the tab labeled ‘303(d) List’ near the middle of the page to view a list of Water Quality Limited Segments under Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act, which requires states to identify waterbodies that do not meet water quality standards and are not supporting their beneficial uses. The list identifies the pollutant(s) or stressor(s) causing impairment, and establishes a schedule for developing a control plan to address the impairment.
Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)
The Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) mission is to provide resource managers, decision makers, and the public with timely, high-quality information and tools needed to evaluate the condition of surface waters throughout California. SWAMP accomplishes this through its statewide and regional ambient monitoring programs and by maintaining the infrastructure to support the production of high quality data and tools for data analysis and interpretation.
