California Fines Water District $1.5M for not Complying with Restrictions
The State Water Resources Control Board announced Monday the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District, located in Tracy, Calif., just outside San Francisco, must pay the fineor request a hearing with the water board within 20 days.
The agency says the district continued to use water from an intake channel at the Banks pumping plant for nearly two weeks after new water restrictions were put in place. Those Obama-extends-110M-in-relief/9571434141940/?spt=sec&or=tn” target=”_blank”>new restrictions, ordered June 12, curtailed water use by farmers with water rights dating back to 1903.
Byron-Bethany, along with a number of other irrigation districts, sued the water board, challenging its authority to curtail their water rights, which date back to before 1914, the date the state originated its water rights system, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The board said Byron-Bethany diverted more than 2,000 acre-feet of water during the two weeks it was allegedly out of compliance.
The last time the state ordered restrictions for pre-1914 rights holders was during a drought in the 1970s.
Gov. Jerry Brown in April ordered mandatory water restrictions statewide, calling for a 25 percent reduction from residents and most farmers. He faced intense scrutiny at the time for not ordering tighter restrictions for farmers to ease the effects of drought. The restrictions for thousands of pre-1914 rights farmers went into effect in June.
Agriculture consumes 80 percent of California’s water, but only accounts for two percent of the state’s economy, according to non-partisan think tank Public Policy Institute of California.
The Democratic governor defended his decision at the time, saying farms in California are “providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America” and provide jobs to the state’s most vulnerable residents.
In May, one month after Brown’s sweeping water restrictions, Californians used 29 percent less water than they did in the same month two years prior.
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