SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State regulators gave a bleak drought warning Monday to the farms and cities that draw drinking and irrigation water from California’s major rivers: Prepare for mandatory cutbacks.
The State Water Resources Control Board announced it was sending letters to approximately 20,000 water right holders — farmers and cities with historical legal claims to river water. Facing a third straight year of drought, the letter says they should expect to stop pulling water in the coming weeks — and even earlier than last year.
It wasn’t until last August that the water board ordered thousands of water users to cut their water use on the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds — arguably the two most important rivers in the state. The fact that the board is warning in March about similar curtailment orders is a sign of the deepening severity of the drought.
