Water Rights In California Central Valley

In the winter of 1861 62 a series of strong storms caused massive flooding in the valley killing livestock ruining crops and turning the flat lowland into an inland sea 60 miles wide and 400 miles long.

Water rights in california central valley. A decade after california gained statehood in 1850 its agricultural settlers in the central valley experienced two very different types of water related disasters between 1861 and 1864. For instance the state and federal governments had to negotiate agreements with water right holders to build and operate their surface water storage and distribution systems the federal central valley project and the state water project. Seasonal geographic and quantitative differences in precipitation caused california s system to develop into a unique blend of two very different kinds of rights. Rights to california s uniquely unregulated groundwater have always come along with ownership of the land above.

Groundwater allowed farmers to make it through dry times and to plant in parched. Other types of rights exist in california as well among them reserved rights water set aside by the federal government when it reserves land. Water right law in california and the rest of the west is markedly different from the laws governing water use in the eastern united states.