Largest Cuts on Record Ordered for California Farmers With Senior Water Rights

The move marks the first time the state has forced large numbers of senior-water rights holders to curtail water use

Drought-stricken California has ordered the largest cuts on record for farmers holding some of the state's strongest water rights, which date to more than a century ago.

State water officials announced the decision Friday to tell more than a hundred senior rights holders  in California's Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds to stop pumping from those waterways. The move marked the first time that the state has forced large numbers of senior-water rights holders to curtail water use.

It will affect thousands of farmers.

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.

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.

Those rights are most often based on when the water was first diverted for use, whether it was intended for farming or blasting gold out of the Sierra Nevada foothills during the Gold Rush era. Nailing a notice that the water had been appropriated to a tree sometimes served as notification of the claim. 

In 1914, the state began issuing permits that outline the amount and timing of water diversions, making that year the dividing line between senior and junior water rights holders. Water rights claims issued before approval of the Water Commission Act in November 1914 were grandfathered in and given senior rights.

Regulators last ordered cuts to farmers with pre-1914 water rights during the 1976-77 drought. Junior rights holders are generally the first to face cuts in times of drought.

Most large irrigation districts already have stored water that can still be used. Many growers also have groundwater supplies that are not touched by the order. 

California already has ordered cuts in water use by cities and towns and by many other farmers, including those with post-1914 water rights. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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