The California Water Shortage
From
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/04/03/agriculture-is-80-percent-of-water-use-in-california-why-arent-farmers-being-forced-to-cut-back/
with
https://gvwire.com/2022/04/26/drought-ravaged-farmers-pay-up-to-2000-an-acre-foot-for-water/
and
https://www.kqed.org/science/1976510/central-valley-farmers-weigh-in-on-californias-historic-drought
we conclude the following:
There is no shortage of water in California.
What California has is a shortage of CHEAP water.
If you are willing to pay market rates, you can get all the water you want.
California has an ancient and unjust system of water allocation that basically states:
If all californians had to pay market rates, there would be way way LESS water usage and California’s water shortage would end.
Why?
California has a subsidy and allocation problem that was created when California had high snow packs. Today, due to the climate disaster, California’s snowpack is much smaller. The snow is gone but the old programs encouraging farmers to use more water are still in effect!
The custom was this: If you dug a diversion — say, to irrigate a field — you were entitled to whatever water you carried off. By digging alone, you established a right to that water. It would then be illegal for someone to go upstream of you and divert all the water onto their property. In the West, the people who got there first got their water rights first.
Until those programs are changed to reflect the new climate disaster reality, California’s “water crisis” will continue.
No amount of water conservation
by homeowners
will put even a small dent
into the water shortage problem.
California is a $2 trillion economy. As many have pointed out, all the calls for urban water conservation are missing the target!
It is NOT fair to squeeze the cities
when farms consume 80 percent of the water
used in California, while generating
a mere 2% of California’s economic activity.
Putting farmers out of business, where farmers are allowed to consume all the state’s water at $15 per acre foot, is what it will take to solve California’s water problem.
Californians can have as much water as they want. They just have to pay $2,000 an acre foot for it.
They won’t pay that, so they have no water.
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