Newsom wades into the deep end

By: Camille Von Kaenel

MAKING A SPLASH: When Californians say water is liquid gold, they mean it. Gold Rush-era culture makes up the basis of the state’s water rights system, which essentially amounts to first come, first served.

Like any 19th century artifact, the system has problems: Descendents of the first European settlers have outsize rights, clashing with growing cities. And the murky allocation has led to waterrights owners having claims to five times more water than California usually has available, according to a 2014 University of California study.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have recently made moves to revise the system, claiming it is ill-equipped for the weather upheaval brought by climate change.

But even a hint of change has ignited suspicion among farmers, whose fortunes are built on the centuries-old rights. They are now fighting a trio of proposals in the state Legislature they say could upend their business.

• Assembly Bill 460 by Assemblymember Rebecca BauerKahan (D-Orinda) would grant more powers to the State Water Resources Control Board to more easily penalize farmers and others who take more than their share of allotted water at the expense of the environment.

• Assembly Bill 1337 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks

(D-Oakland) would give the Water Resources Control Board more authority to limit diversions from rivers from those who now hold the most senior water rights, from before 1914.

• Senate Bill 389 by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) allows the Water Resources Control Board to better investigate water claims, especially senior pre-1914 rights, to verify whether diversions are legal. Groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau and the Association of California Water Agencies argue that the bills rob water rights owners of due process. Environmental groups including Trout Unlimited and the Planning and Conservation League say the state has to be more nimble to handle climate change.

After the bills cleared their policy committees, opponents have — so far unsuccessfully — proposed changes to water them down. The Senate appropriations committee could decide the fate of SB 389 next week. The two Assembly bills are headed to appropriations next.

Newsom, who last year opened the door to the water fight now playing out in the Legislature when he said the state should look at the issue, has since stayed publicly quiet.

His January budget proposal included $31 million for an effort to digitize paper records related to water rights. (That’s how 19th-century the system is.) Expect a stormy fight on the floor.