'A foundation of racism': California's antiquated 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.

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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.”

FULL ARTICLE: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-06/is-californias-antiquated-water-rights-system-racist

QUOTE (from the link): “California water rights were created by taking away land and water from tribes. And as the water rights system developed, you had a parallel set of laws, customs and practices in California that redlined people of color out of land ownership near water,” (executive director of Restore the Delta Barbara) Barrigan-Parrilla said.

“It is just a continuation of the discriminatory practices that began in the creation of a system that was racist, and now it’s institutionalized discrimination that continues.”

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Change, if it is possible, will require a Herculean effort.