A proposed regulation supported by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) would impose permanent water conservation mandates on about 400 California cities and water agencies. State regulators claim the measure would save about 413,000 acre-feet of water annually, or enough to supply about 1.2 million households.
However water policy expert Max Gomberg has said the new rule does nothing to rein in the biggest consumers of the state’s water: Central Valley agribusiness. Gomberg said agriculture uses 28 to 35 million acre-feet of water annually, which constitutes 80% of California’s developed water.
“Most of the surface water is transported by the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. … And much of that water – generally around 3 million acre-feet – is used by a very small number of corporate growers to produce high value, water-intensive crops such as almonds and pistachios for export.”
Gomberg noted that these crops aren’t essential to the national food supply, nor do they contribute significantly to California’s GDP. Also, he claims that water deliveries to corporate growers are supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies. In effect this results in the taxpayer subsidizing corporations that produce luxury crops for sales overseas.
Source: dailykos.com