California Is Re-examining Decades-Old Claims to Its Water

California’s water supplies are doled out in a way that can seem haphazard. The rules that determine who receives how much water date back more than a century, and form a confusing patchwork across the state.

For all its complexity, the system worked well enough for decades and allowed California to develop an enormous agriculture industry that fuels its economy and feeds America. But with strains from climate change and extreme drought increasing, the state is being forced to take a hard look at its water supplies. Regulators approved new rules on Tuesday that allows wastewater to be purified into drinking water, making California the second state to do so. (Colorado was first.)

My colleague Raymond Zhong, a climate reporter, recently investigated California’s water woes, and how the state is re-examining water rights after decades of scant oversight. In some parts of California, officials are asking farmers to provide historical records to back their water claims; in others, regulators are considering throttling supplies to cattle ranchers who have been siphoning large amounts from streams.

I spoke to Raymond about his reporting. Here’s our conversation, edited and condensed.

Why did you want to focus on water rights in California?

I first got interested during last winter’s drenching storms. After three years of drought, billions of gallons of water were suddenly gushing down the rivers. Yet, irrigation districts that wanted to grab some were still finding it difficult. The reason, I learned, was the state’s water rights system: Even when there’s far too much to go around, the system sets limits.

At first, I imagined that this meant regulators had a big spreadsheet that recorded everybody’s allotments in an orderly way: Here’s your name, here’s your place in line, here’s how much you can take and when. I soon found out that this wasn’t exactly the case: Yes, everybody has allotments. But the way they’re spelled out and enforced can be the opposite of orderly.

What did you learn from your reporting?

One of the big issues is that California really has two water rights systems. The state water board began issuing permits and licenses in 1914. That’s one system. But a lot of major farms and irrigation districts staked their claims to water before 1914, and the board has much more limited authority to regulate those. So essentially, in the same river basin, with everybody sharing the same supplies, the state has jurisdiction over some users but not others.

For this reason and more, it is “shockingly difficult” for the water board to manage supplies by cutting people off during a drought, as Erik Ekdahl, the board official responsible for the cutting, puts it.

How has such a haphazard system persisted for so long in a state with so many water needs?

For most of California’s history, you could probably say the system basically worked. Sure, there were droughts. People would fight over water sometimes. But the problems were infrequent and isolated enough that the system didn’t need major fixes.

Now the planet is warming, and the state has seen what it’s like to go from one prolonged drought to another, with just a few years’ reprieve in between. Plus, the state’s usual backup source during drought, its groundwater, is disappearing fast. So the pressure on regulators has ramped up significantly in recent years.

But everything officials might do is also much harder now. Every change affects so many more people and so much more business than it would have decades ago. The resistance to change can be much more powerful.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from David Hayashida, who lives in Greenbrae:

“San Francisco is home to several dazzling public tiled staircases; my favorite are the 16th Avenue tiled steps. This mosaic-tiled staircase was designed and fabricated by the local artists Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher, and is in the Golden Gate Heights neighborhood and maintained by many dedicated volunteers.

There are 163 steps, constructed with over 2,000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of mirror, tile and stained glass, with a theme that progresses from under the sea at the bottom, to the moon and sun at the top. Flanking the stairs are gardens of native plants and succulents.

For an invigorating experience that combines art viewing and exercise, inspect the 163 steps as you make the 90-foot climb up to 15th Avenue. Once there, proceed up 28 more concrete steps to the upper level of this split-level street and walk to nearby Grandview Park, then ascend an additional 144 wooden steps to the park’s summit. Your reward will be wonderful views of San Francisco, the Marin Headlands and the Pacific Ocean. The return trip, thankfully, is much easier!”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

What are you looking forward to in 2024? Graduations, big birthdays, travel to new places?

Tell us your hopes for the new year at [email protected]. Please include your full name and the city in which you live.

And before you go, some good news

Thirteen California restaurants made Esquire’s list of the 50 best new restaurants in the country, with chefs around the state earning commendations for their exacting technique, stylish seafood dishes and cuisine fusion.

Among the buzzy new dining establishments: Auro, a fine dining destination in Napa Valley; Burdell, an unusual mash-up of soul food and California cooking in Oakland; and Dalida, a restaurant in San Francisco whose menu pays homage to the entire eastern Mediterranean region.

“Honest innovation doesn’t always work in the kitchen, but when it does, it’s like rocket fuel for the soul,” Kevin Sintumuang, Esquire’s director for lifestyle and culture, writes in the foreword to the list, adding, “Consider this your map.”