Water Rights and Water Rights

If you were to explain legal water rights in the western United States to someone who knows nothing about it, I don't know if they would believe you. It's so ludicrous and steeped in historic inequality, I can't defend it. I wrote a little bit about it in Living history back in 2015.

Our Boulder condo straddles a water ditch, but our HOA does not own the water rights to the rain and snow on our property.  In fact, our rain gutters feed into the ditch because some white farmers, back in the 19th century, filed paper claims to the water that falls on our property in perpetuity.  If we need water, we have to buy it from them, or someone similar (all white men), who was granted water rights by the white men who ran the government at the time.

Do I have your attention?

Back in April, I posted the first half of my March 2020 report to the LWV/LAC about water safety in Los Angeles County.

Here's the water affordability background and discussion.

Back in 2012, California enacted AB 685, now Water Code Section 106.3.  It statutorily recognizes that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”  Safe and clean are already defined by multiple water quality laws federal and state.  Declaring it doesn't make it so.  You have to add some homework and $.

In 2015, that was followed by AB 401, which requires the CA State Board of Equalization and other stakeholders to develop a plan for funding and implementation of the Low-Income Water Rate Assistance Program.

In 2019, SB 200 established the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund to assist low-income Californians.  The law spelled out how it would be funded, but the implementation details are still being worked out.

The California Water Board released a report on low-income water affordability to satisfy AB401; related to AB685 and SB200:

Options:

1. Direct bill assistance (does not help renters whose water bill is included in rent)
2. Renters’ water credit (gives help once a year while water bills are monthly; poorer families move more frequently and may not be on lease or receive aid)
3. Crisis assistance can be added to either option 1 or 2 and can keep the water from being shut off.
4. Set $ assistance per household assumes 3 people at 49 gpd (gallons per person per day) and does not take into account household size.

Shortly after this report came out, Covid-19 hit.  Governor Newsom issued an executive order that protects homes and small businesses from water shutoffs for non-payment during the pandemic.  Water service providers still have to purchase and provide water, but they may not necessarily get paid for it.

It is absolutely vital that everyone gets water, especially during a pandemic when good sanitation is a life or death matter.  But what about the water providers?  Some were already struggling financially before the Covid-19 crisis because their customers were already economically struggling.  Yet, help from the state from AB401 still hasn't arrived.

The stopgap may be the same solution as for water safety: merging the struggling water service providers to stronger ones.  Strong can mean many things, including access to clean water through paper water rights and/or money to purchase water from those that hold paper water rights.

One such scenario is playing out right now in southeastern Los Angeles County.  I'm following it closely and will do more research before blogging about it.