California lawmakers mull buying out state’s farmers to save water
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After decades of fighting farmers in court over how much water they can take out of California’s rivers and streams, some state lawmakers want to try something different: use taxpayer money to buy out farmers.
A proposal in the state Senate would spend up to $1.5 billion to buy “senior water rights” that allow farmers to take as much water as needed from the state’s rivers and streams to grow their crops. If state officials owned those rights, they could leave the water in the rivers to benefit endangered species of salmon and other fish.
California has been mired in drought for most of the last two decades, prompting intense scrutiny of the state’s complex water system and how it might be modified to ensure steady supplies during exceptionally dry periods — including a separate state proposal that would pay farmers to grow fewer crops to save water.
Current readings show about 98% of the state has severe drought conditions as California heads into summer months that rarely produce any significant precipitation. Many areas have begun restricting water use for homeowners, largely by reducing outdoor use such as lawn irrigation. And farmers have had their allocation from the two major stateowned water systems reduced — in some cases down to zero.
Legally, all of the water in California is the property of the government. But farmers have “water rights” that let them take water for agriculture. Farmers have used those rights — governed by a complicated system based on seniority and other factors — to turn California’s Central Valley into an agricultural powerhouse that provides much of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables.
But siphoning off all that water also has disrupted the fragile ecosystem of the San Joaquin/ Sacramento river delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast and home to endangered salmon and other fish. Environmental groups and farmers have battled for years over state and federal rules governing just how much water can be diverted for agriculture, which uses far more water than any other sector of the economy.
Now, with California having a record budget surplus of nearly $100 billion, Democrats in the state Senate have proposed using up to $1.5 billion to buy senior water rights — by either buying the land associated with the rights, buying just the right itself, or putting an easement on the land that requires the water to be used for fish and other fauna and flora.
The proposal is part of budget negotiations between lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration that should wrap up by the end of this month.
“It’s like we’re taking a page from corporate America and we’re buying back stock,” said state Sen. Bob Wieckowski, a Democrat who represents the San Francisco Bay Area and is chair of a budget subcommittee overseeing environmental spending.
While $1.5 billion sounds like a lot of money, it wouldn’t buy that much water. Regulators measure water by “acre foot,” defined as enough water to cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot. That’s the equivalent of 325,851 gallons.
A typical household uses 1 acre foot of water each year. Farmers collectively use up to 35 million acre feet of water each year, according to the Water Education Foundation.