Posted on 04/25/2015 8:38:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Earlier this year, the State Water Resources Control Board ordered more than 1,000 property owners to prove their water rights. This month, the board warned claim holders to expect curtailments of their ability to divert water from rivers and streams.
The actions are significant because they include the state’s most senior water rights holders – those claimed before California established its permitting process in 1914.
“The rules are changing,” Forbes said. “They’re shaking us down.”
Throughout California, there are more than 14,000 statements of diversion and use that reflect riparian and pre-1914 water rights, according to the most recent information in the state’s public water rights database. The rights are concentrated in California’s northern reaches and in counties around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
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“Everything’s at risk,” he [Mello]said. “Who knows what actions the governor will take?”... “it looks like where we’re heading is they’re going to try to change water law.”
Gov. Jerry Brown has repeatedly defended farmers and their heavy water use in recent weeks, largely exempting them from a mandatory 25 percent reduction in water use in cities and towns. But water rights holders became alarmed when the Democratic governor said this month on ABC’s “This Week” that historic rights are “probably going to be examined” if the drought persists.
In Meadow Valley, Forbes’ water claim goes back to 1872. In a handwritten note that year, landowner Richard Jacks claimed water from Meadow Valley Creek for “mining, milling, manufacturing and agricultural purposes.”
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Forbes came to the ranch with his family in the 1950s.
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“Now everyone’s fighting over claims and water rights,” he said. “It’s just, it’s just … how much has this changed in so little time?”
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I confidently proclaim that California’s drought is due to decades of liberal governance. LKD, Liberogenic Kalifornian Drought. It’s a consensus among conservatives, so anyone who dares argue is just a paid shill for the liberal enslavement industry. Hey, it makes as much sense as AGW suckers.
“YOU LOSE” -the government
When Brown is governor, there is drought. Was the same in 70’s... If he were to leave office, rain would be plentiful...
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