Water resources: permit to appropriate: protected species.

Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law prohibits the taking or possession of a fully protected fish, except as provided, and designates the unarmored threespine stickleback as a fully protected fish. This bill would prohibit the board from issuing on or after January 1, 2018, a new permit to appropriate water from any river or stream that has, or is reasonably expected to have, a population of unarmored threespine stickleback.