California would pay farmers not to plant thousands of acres of land as part of a $2.9 billion plan to let more water flow in the the state’s rivers
In addition, the agreement was negotiated privately between the Newsom administration and some of the state's biggest water agencies. Environmental groups, Native American tribes and other communities were left out.
Today, all but about 5% of those wetlands are gone, consumed by a complex system of dams and canals that diverts much of the water into large reservoirs. Those reservoirs are then used for drinking water in the state's major cities and irrigation for Central Valley farmers who supply most of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables.
California's water is governed by a complex water rights system that is based on seniority. In the past, state and federal regulators would make the rules for how much water farmers and others could take out of the rivers. That prompted lots of lawsuits from water rights holders that would sometimes take decades to resolve.
“The governor said kind of day one to us as a team, ‘We need a different way of thinking about water in our state. We just we have to end these crazy management by litigation. We have to end the water wars,’” said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “This is a really huge, big step in moving the system.”
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