SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Despite a pretty healthy Sierra snowpack, California is gearing up for a political battle over its water future and potentially how much we pay for water and produce.
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California uses a lot of water from the Colorado River. It goes to Imperial Valley crops and hydrates Southern California, but the river is drying up. Moving forward, the federal government wants to know how the state and six others plan to cut back on water use.
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona — the six other states that draw from the Colorado River — have already submitted a collaborative plan insisting that California cut back the most. However, California argued its water rights are older and stronger than its counterparts.
"California water rights on paper are legally much better protected than Arizona or New Mexico and Wyoming and other states, so an equal reduction would have a much bigger effect on California and they say the water is legally ours," KCBS Radio Political Analyst Marc Sandalow told KCBS Radio. "If they don't reach this agreement, and it appears they definitely won't, the federal government's going to step in. No one knows what’s going to happen."
Any drastic reduction to the state would mean Southern California would rely even more on Northern California supply and Sierra snowpack.
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