California warns of deep water rights curtailments amid drought

In the week after issuing an unprecedented statewide water use reduction order, Gov. Jerry Brown labored to defend the measure’s focus on urban water use instead of agriculture, which consumes far more water than cities and towns.

The drought has already pummeled farmers, Brown said, with diminished state and federal water allocations forcing them to uproot trees and fallow thousands of acres of fields.

But while Brown defends agriculture’s heavy use of water, he is also considering water rights curtailments that could dramatically affect the industry.The State Water Resources Control Board has warned water rights holders to expect restrictions on their right to divert water from rivers and streams.

Last year, the state curtailed the water rights of a host of junior rights holders, including 2,648 rural and urban agencies in the Sacramento Valley.

But with conditions worsening, the water board said last week that it might issue curtailment notices to the state’s most senior water rights holders – those claimed before establishment of the state’s water rights permitting process in 1914.

The last time water rights that old were curtailed was in the late 1970s, officials said.

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