Three measures to overhaul California oversight of water use were introduced in the Legislature this year but the most important two died.
. “California’s State Water Resources Control Board needs to be able to routinely require diverters to curtail unlawful water uses in order to protect water rights, human health and safety, and the environment from serious harm.”
Water rights holders, most of whom are agricultural water agencies, saw the report and the three bills — accurately — as a frontal assault on their privileged position in the competition for water and mounted a stout defense. If enacted, they argued, the changes would make it infinitely more difficult for farmers to plan crop cycles.
, has made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. It would give the board more explicit authority to investigate whether water diversions are lawful — within the scope of diverters’ legal rights — and punish violators as trespassers. It’s certainly less than what water rights reformers want, which means the decades-long struggle over the issue will continue, particularly if the state once again experiences the kind of drought that last winter’s heavy rain and snow storms alleviated. State water officials believe that such droughts will become more common with climate change, or at least will change the mix of precipitation, with less snow and more rain.
However, water rights are just one front — albeit a very important one — in the state’s perpetual conflict over how the precious liquid should be allocated. Water rights defenders say the state would not have to curtail their supplies if it did a better job of capturing and storing water when it’s available, and there’s some validity in that criticism.
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