Drought-stricken California has ordered the largest cuts on record to farmers holding some of the state’s strongest water rights.

State water officials on Friday announced the decision to tell more than a hundred senior rights holders in California’s Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds to stop pumping from those waterways.

Jay Lund, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Davis, said the order was both expected and necessary.

“It’s a very deep drought. One of the deepest in history, particularly in the San Joaquin valley that has been suffering tremendously,” he said.

The move is the first time the state has forced large numbers of senior-water rights holders to curtail water use. It will affect thousands of farmers.

“We are now at the point where demand in our system is outstripping supply for even the most senior water rights holders,” said Caren Trgovcich, chief deputy director of the State Water Resources Control Board.

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, and is the first significant mandatory cut because of drought for senior water rights holders since the last major drought, in the late 1970s.

When California’s governor, Jerry Brown, issued an unprecedented order on 1 April for the forced reduction by 25% of urban water consumption, affecting around 90% of California’s residents, city dwellers were quick to point out that agriculture was responsible for 80% of the state’s water consumption.

The move stacked individual California residents, protective of their lawns, against farmers. Friday’s order, affecting farmers directly, redressed the imbalance somewhat. Lund, however, said such a perception was itself imbalanced and inaccurate.

“Agriculture has been suffering cuts for three years,” he said. “Cities have only started to feel the effects of this four-year drought much more recently.”

This year is the first year Californian city dwellers are facing mandatory water usage restrictions. Last year’s voluntary call for reductions largely failed to gain traction.

Friday’s order applies to farmers and others whose rights to water were staked more than a century ago. Many holding such senior-water rights contend that the state has no authority to order cuts.

One group of farmers with prized claims have made a deal with the state to voluntarily cut water use by 25% in order to be spared deep mandatory cuts in the future.

Jeanne Zolezzi, an attorney for two small irrigation districts serving farmers in the San Joaquin area, said she planned to go to court next week to stop the board’s action.

Zolezzi said her clients included small family farms that grow permanent crops such as apricots and walnuts without backup supplies in underground wells or local reservoirs.



“A lot of trees would die, and a lot of people would go out of business,” said Zolezzi. “We are not talking about a 25% cut like imposed on urban. This is a 100% cut, no water supplies.”

But Lund said the objective of the new order was not to punish people, rather to realistically tackle California’s climate.

“Drought is a great reminder that California is a very dry place,” he said. “We have to learn how to manage it for the long term.”