California’s rivers are under growing pressure, and one of the most effective tools for protecting them remains little known: Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) status. This designation offers the highest level of water quality protection under the Clean Water Act. Instead of managing how much a river can be polluted, ONRW status sets a clear standard – the water must stay as clean and healthy as it is today, with no permanent degradation allowed. 

A Shield Against Federal Rollbacks 

The push for ONRW designations has gained new urgency in the face of federal environmental rollbacks. Recent Supreme Court decisions and changes to executive policy have stripped protections from vast numbers of streams and wetlands. However, because ONRWs are established as state water quality standards, they offer a resilient legal shield that is not subject to federal executive action or shifts in national land-management priorities. In states like New Mexico, this tool has become essential for protecting water quality following the loss of federal jurisdiction over non-navigable streams. 

National Momentum: Washington Leads the Way 

California is looking to our neighbors in Washington, who recently set a national example. In 2023, Washington protected nearly 1,000 river miles—including the Cascade, Green, and Napeequa systems—to safeguard wildlife habitat, clean drinking water, and recreational spaces. By putting these protections into Clean Water Act rules, Washington created a model that could guide similar efforts in other states, including in California.  

River Protection Efforts in California 

While California has only designated two ONRWs in the last fifty years (Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake), three regional efforts are currently underway. These cases are not just about clean water; they are about climate resilience, tribal heritage, and protecting unique ecosystems from industrial threats. 

• Elder and Cedar Creeks (North Coast): These pristine tributaries are being proposed as California’s first “climate refugia” ONRWs. As regional temperatures rise, these exceptionally cold waters provide critical survival habitat for threatened salmon and steelhead. 

• Medicine Lake Volcanic Basin & Fall River Springs (Central Valley): Building on the Pit River Tribe’s decades-long effort to protect this area, this proposal seeks to protect the “Sattitla” highlands—a sacred landscape where a massive volcanic aquifer stores as much water as California’s 200 largest reservoirs. ONRW status would provide a layer of state protection against geothermal industrial development on federal lands. 

• Hot Creek (Eastern Sierra): Known for its unique hydrothermal geology, Hot Creek is home to one of the world’s last pure populations of the endangered Owens tui chub. This designation is being pursued as a proactive legal mechanism to protect the creek’s fragile ecosystem from exploratory gold mining. 

Why This Matters Now 

As climate change drives rising temperatures, threatens the cold-water fish need to survive, and strains our limited freshwater, protecting our rivers has never been more urgent.  At the same time, potential rollbacks at the federal level make it even more important for states like California to take action.