California’s water rights system faces new scrutiny

It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from Sierra Nevada foothills and when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers.

Today, this antiquated system of water rights still governs the use of the state’s supplies, but it is now drawing scrutiny like never before.

In the face of global warming and worsening cycles of drought, a growing number of water experts, lawmakers, environmental groups and tribes say the time has finally come for change. Some are pushing for a variety of reforms, while others are calling for the outright dismantling of California’s contentious water rights system.

Calls for reform were heightened recently when the environmental group Restore the Delta released an analysis that concluded that the people who make decisions about California’s water are overwhelmingly white and male.

“The whole water rights system sits on a foundation of racism and violence,” said Max Gomberg, a former State Water Resources Control Board staffer who has sharply criticized the Newsom administration and now works with the environmental group. “It needs to be abolished.”

The report was released as state lawmakers held a hearing on several reform proposals that would address longstanding problems within the water rights system.

“This is not an easy conversation, but I think it’s long overdue,” said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), who chairs the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

Bauer-Kahan said there are many signs the existing system is “not functioning well and equitably,” including the “inability to halt illegal diversions.”

During the hearing, experts such as Richard Frank, a UC Davis law professor, argued for a “more nimble system,” while Ellen Hanak, director of water policy for the Public Policy Institute of California, said the changing climate is stressing the water rights system.

“We’re confronting 21st century climate change, drought and water supply problems with a 20th century system of California water infrastructure and a 19th century system of water rights, and that’s a problem,” said Frank, director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center.

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