The state Supreme Court yesterday sided with a group of farmers that challenged an agreement between farmers and cities to limit water use in the parched Mojave River Basin. In its ruling, which is sure to make it more difficult for California's booming cities to get the water they need to grow, the court upheld a ruling that invalidated part of the carefully negotiated 1993 water pact. In California, the farms were generally there first, and they depend on irrigation to grow crops on 8 million acres of otherwise arid land.
Cities do take a back seat.
The dissident farmers argued that they should be entitled to keep using the amount of water they've enjoyed for decades on and under their land as long as it's not sold or wasted. The high court agreed, saying the pact's restrictions failed to take into account the farmers' legal water rights. The Mojave River, which flows mostly underground, is the only natural source of water for Barstow and most high desert communities in San Bernardino County. But the water has been pumped out faster than rainfall can replenish it in recent years, causing the water table downstream to plunge. Water officials in the growing desert communities of Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Hesperia, Victorville and other outlying areas say the basin might dry up altogether without use restrictions, so they came up with a broad plan.