Dry spell gets worse for Calif. farmers

State officials announced major water cutbacks for Northern California farmers Friday, a historic step that could challenge claims the agriculture industry is getting a free pass during the state’s epic drought.

The cutbacks will affect some of California’s oldest water rights holders — farmers who laid claim to surface water more than a century ago — for the first time in four decades. They will not be allowed to draw water from the San Joaquin River, the Sacramento River and the delta that forms where the two rivers meet. State officials said the rivers simply don’t have enough water to meet the demands of all rights holders.

This isn’t the first time during the current drought that the state has cut off supplies to surface water users, including farmers. The water board had curtailed nearly 9,000 water rights this year, all of them junior water rights that were established post- 1914.

But for the first time since a severe drought in the late 1970s, California is starting to tell senior water rights holders, who laid claim to surface water before 1914, that there isn’t enough water for them. The cutbacks announced Friday impact rights holders who established their claims between 1903 and 1914.

More historic cuts could be coming this summer. The State Water Resources Control Board says it’s continuing to monitor conditions in watersheds across the state, and that cutbacks could be on the horizon for more senior rights holders. “Curtailment notices for other watersheds and for more senior water right holders in these watersheds may be imminent,” it said.