DROUGHT: The California Water Board has left its residents out to dry…literally.
By Joseph N. Nakatani, Staff Writer
We all drink water. In Southern California, water has become scarce due to the lack of rain this past season. This led Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state-wide drought. We were called on to conserve water by any means necessary, with many cities enacting water conservation codes that restrict water use. What if, despite all these restrictions, we were still left as dry as the Sahara Desert? Researchers Theodore E. Grantham and Joshua H. Viers of University of California, Davis (UC Davis) determined that we don’t have enough water because rights to water were granted for five times more water than the streams and aquifers are able to produce.
Typically farmers and utility companies apply for the rights to attain water. Following this request, the application is reviewed by the Water Board who then compares it to records of water use. The Water Board later approves or denies the application. However, somewhere along the way, the Water Board stopped recording the amount of water it had leased and continued to approve applications even though there was no water left to give.
In their new report, 100 years of California’s Water Rights System: Patterns, Trends and Uncertainty, Grantham and Viers determined that the Water Board granted rights to water for more than the state actually possesses. In fact, they granted “approximately five times” the amount of water than the state has access to. According to the report, the over-leasing of water is due to the poor record keeping of the Water Board.
Because water is scarce, the Water Board will have to reallocate water from people who have rights to places where it is most needed. This reallocation of water affects homeowners, farmers, utility companies and cities across California, causing the cost of water to skyrocket, stretching budgets and hurting families across the Southland in the recent extreme heat. The water reallocation, stretched budgets and lack of water could have avoided had the Water Board kept accurate records the first time around.
In order to prevent future damage, we must take swift action to ensure this never happens again. The individuals that let this monstrosity occur need to resign then be replaced by a new, competent administration. The question still stands: who is entitled to these water rights? The answer to this question is less complicated than one may think. All that needs to be done is to wipe out the records on water rights and have all farmers and utility companies reapply for water.
Many people expect to see immediate results, but unfortunately, it will take time. In the meantime, California will have to deal with some growing pains. However, the long term benefits of replacing the entire water board and fixing the problem outweigh the disadvantages. But to stop the problem from getting any worse, California needs to act fast; we are sitting on a ticking time bomb that must be defused before it incinerates our water and us along with it.