Farms Along California Delta In Jeopardy Amid Fears Senior Water Rights Could Be Curtailed

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The water crisis in California is so severe that State Water Resources Control Board has suggested it may soon approve emergency drought measures preventing landowners with pre-1914 water rights from diversions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region, according to Western Farm Press.

The board's decision will be made during an Aug. 3-4 meeting. If the new measure is approved, notices throughout the expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California will curtail water diversions to protect dwindling supplies amid a megadrought.

For the last century, the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, has been claimed for agriculture use.

There are about 5,000 users in the Delta area, with exemptions only for human health and safety and non-consumptive uses. Most farmers within the Delta have pre-1914 rights and have been managing to bring their crops to harvest.

Ashley Lorenzo of Great Valley Poultry in Manteca told Farm Press that if water diversions for senior rights holders were halted, it could force many farm operators into financial disaster.