Some fear California drought cuts could erase water rights
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A proposal to make California’s drought-era water restrictions permanent could allow the state to chip away at long-held water rights in an unprecedented power grab, representatives from water districts and other users told regulators Tuesday.
Members of the state Water Resources Control Board delayed a decision about whether to bring back what had been temporary water bans from California’s drought, spanning 2013 to 2017. The plan is part of an effort to make water conservation a way of life, with climate change expected to lead to longer, more severe droughts.
It comes after U.S. officials declared that nearly half the state, all of it in the south, is back in drought just months after emerging from it.
Officials from several irrigation and water agencies said the restrictions are reasonable, but not the plan to impose them under the state Constitution’s prohibition on the “waste or unreasonable use” of water. That would create a slippery slope of allowing the board to repeatedly chip away at California’s historic protection of water rights for landowners, they said.