Sent to us by RKE.
Drought-stricken California on Friday ordered the largest cuts on record to farmers holding some of the state’s strongest water rights.
State water officials told more than a hundred senior rights holders in California’s Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds to stop pumping from those waterways.
The move by the State Water Resources Control Board marked the first time that the state has forced large numbers of holders of senior-water rights to curtail use. Those rights holders include water districts that serve thousands of farmers and others.
The move shows California is sparing fewer and fewer users in the push to cut back on water using during the state’s four-year drought.
“We are now at the point where demand in our system is outstripping supply for even the most senior water rights holders,” Caren Trgovcich, chief deputy director of the water board.
The order applies to farmers and others whose rights to water were staked more than a century ago. Many farmers holding those senior-water rights contend the state has no authority to order cuts.
The reductions are enforced largely on an honor system because there are few meters and sensors in place to monitor consumption.
California already has ordered cuts in water use by cities and towns and by many other farmers..
The move Friday marked the first significant mandatory cuts because of drought for senior water rights holders since the last major drought in the late 1970s.
One group of farmers with prized claims have made a deal with the state to voluntarily cut water use by 25 percent to be spared deep mandatory cuts in the future.
The San Joaquin River watershed runs from the Sierra Nevada to San Francisco Bay and is a key water source for farms and communities.
Thousands of farmers with more recent, less secure claims to water have already been told to stop all pumping from the San Joaquin and Sacramento watersheds. They are turning to other sources of water, including wells, reservoirs and the expensive open market.
Some farmers have built their businesses around that nearly guaranteed access to water.
Jeanne Zolezzi, an attorney for two small irrigation districts serving farmers in the San Joaquin area, says she plans to go to court next week to stop the board’s action. She said her clients include small family farms that grow permanent crops such as apricots and walnuts without backup supplies in underground wells or local reservoirs they can turn to when they can’t pump from rivers and streams.
“A lot of trees would die, and a lot of people would go out of business,” said Zolezzi. “We are not talking about a 25 percent cut like imposed on urban. This is a 100 percent cut, no water supplies.”
California water law is built around preserving the rights of such senior-rights holders. The state last ordered drought-mandated curtailments by senior-water rights holders in 1976-77, but that order affected only a few dozen rights holders.
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AP writer Ellen Knickmeyer in San Francisco contributed to this report.
“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”
-Henry Kissinger
Have they not forewarned us ??? Well, people, it’s Now Here – nowhere – now/here . . .
“The order applies to farmers and others whose rights to water were staked more than a century ago. Many farmers holding those senior-water rights contend the state has no authority to order cuts.”
Their definition of ‘water rights’ is very different than mine. They CONTEND that they have an exclusive right to their personal use of a given body of water.
I contend that no one can OWN water (the exception being a well or spring on a person’s ‘property’). They didn’t create it, so they can’t claim ownership. It’s was created for EVERYONE’S use.
Again, this is a man-made drought. It will not end as long as HAARP is in operation.
Agree Brother !!! Just today installed my hand pump for the well on my house property. Works like a champ !!! Water is 9′ below the surface and I can pump to 22 feet. My well goes to 33 feet, so no ” sanding up ” issue soon.
Have the pump covered and out of sight. Have a cap for the well line to remove the pump and maintain prime if I make it past jack boots and have to deal with zombies.
I have a question to all: Who in the F@ck sold the planet to the oligarch’s ??? Answer: It was ass-umed, and since we went along, SOB, guess we’re all to blame. Let’s fix it by saying NO !!!
And again, yes, weather wars has driven us in Kali to this point. ” Screw lawyers, bring guns and water, the sh@t has hit the fan . . . “
That’s the best thing you’ve got going for you, Mark. Water is going to be at a premium soon, and you can just bet that the so-called ‘government’ and the corporations will do everything in their power to corner the ‘market’.
Yup, I know. And I know every other neighbor here has a well too, but all locked to electric motor pump. Mine failed 3 years ago. $$$ too much, saw the writing on the wall, and did what I needed to do to set-up ” manual water retrieval “. Now facilitated. Just a few more tactical tweeks, and I’m ready to ” Rock & Roll ” . . .
Deep behind Enemy Lines, San Leandro, California, 20 air miles from the Fukushima / Pacific Coast, Constitution Free ( NOT ) Zone. Can you hear me ? Can you hear me calling out to YOU ???.
No Worry, No Fear !!!
You’re definitely better off than I was down there.
Thanks to HAARP and chemtrails, we’ll be eating cactus salads, rather than lettuce.
And yet, as I keep harping on, Nestle keeps a pumping. Scot free BTW.
Water is a scarce resource. Those who value it most highly will pay the highest price. The problem is when water for some is subsidized by governments who redistribute wealth from the productive to the thief.If we had a shortage of government there’d be no shortage of water. Government itself is firmly in the second category and will remain so as long as the fed and k street exist. If you think you can’t get along with your pestiferous neighbors try bonding with your idiotic government which in the end are only pestiferous neighbors with badges that are supposed to mean this or that ,mostly that you’ll be robbed by a gang of thieves in the name of freedom, democracv and civilization.
The citizens of California would do well to order a large reduction in government.