California Cuts Water for Historic Rights Holders

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California announced Friday it was slapping water restrictions on some of the oldest water rights holders in the parched U.S. state, the first such measures in four decades.

The cuts by the western state, gripped by the fourth year of a punishing drought, will restrict water use by over 100 farmers and others with rights dating back to 1903.

Violators could face fines of up to $1,000 per day and $2,500 per acre-foot of water unlawfully diverted, or could be prosecuted and taken to court, the State Water Resources Control Board said.

The extremely rare order effects a total of 114 so-called "senior" water rights holders, with a total of 276 rights dating from before 1914 in the San Joaquin and Sacramento and their delta northeast of San Francisco.

Those with rights dating from before 1903 are not effected.

"While this is the first time during the current drought that senior water right holders have been given notice that water is not available to serve their water right priority, it is not unprecedented," it said.

"Some senior water right holders were curtailed during the drought of the late 1970s," it added.

In April, California announced sweeping statewide water restrictions for the first time in history in order to combat the region's devastating drought, the worst since records began.

The executive order issued by Governor Jerry Brown would aim to achieve a 25 percent reduction in water usage across cities and towns throughout California by a combination of measures.

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