California farmers ordered to save water
Three waterways in prime farmland now out of bounds
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — As California grapples with a relentless drought, state regulators have ordered farmers and others who hold some of the strongest water rights in the state to stop all pumping from three major waterways in one of country’s prime farm regions.
The order involving record cuts by senior water rights holders in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds followed mandatory water curtailment earlier this year to cities and towns and to farmers with less ironclad water rights.
The waterways targeted in the order by the State Water Resources Control Board provide water to farms and cities in the agriculture-rich Central Valley and beyond.
Economists and agriculture experts say growing of some crops will shift in the short-term to regions with more water, so the water cuts are expected to have little immediate impact on food prices.
The curtailment order applies to 114 entities — including individual landowners and water districts serving farmers and small communities — with claims dating back to 1914 or before.
It will force thousands of water users to tap groundwater, buy water at rising costs, use previously stored water, or go dry.
“It’s going to be a different story for each one of them, and a struggle for all of them,” Thomas Howard, executive director of the water board, acknowledged.
It’s the first time since a 1977 drought that California has directed a significant number of senior water rights holders to stop pumping because of drought and amounts to the most widespread cuts ever among those with some of the state’s strongest water rights.
California water law was built around preserving the water rights of those who staked claims to waterways more than a century ago or have property that abuts rivers and streams.
Water regulators had spared the senior-rights holders until now but warn more cuts will be coming. People ordered Friday to cut back have rights going back to 1903.
“We are now at the point where demand in our system is outstripping supply for even the most senior water rights holders,” said Caren Trgovcich, chief deputy director of the water board.