Report: State needs to crackdown on wasteful water use
By Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
California should more aggressively enforce the state’s ban on wasteful water use and crack down on inefficient irrigation practices, a state watermaster recommends.
In a report that will be presented next week to the State Water Resources Control Board, Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson wades into a potentially explosive area of water law: the “reasonable use” doctrine in the state Constitution.
The principle, reinforced in statute and court decisions, holds that a water right does not include the right to waste water and mandates that “the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use.”
