A Debate: Water Rights in a Climate Changed California

• How can/should California’s water rights system be “adapted” to climate change?

• Considering the stresses on the Delta and the possibility of even more significant shortages in the future than was experienced last year with an initial ZERO allocation to south of Delta agriculture, does the water rights system need to be “adapted” to reflect the fact that over 25 million Californians, the bulk of the State’s economy, and millions of acres of the nation’s most productive farmland have relatively low water rights priorities when push could come to shove?

• Could the current water rights system be “adapted” within its existing structure to provide the ability to move water efficiently and effectively, while ensuring adequate environmental flows, to meet future challenges? If so, what needs to be done?

• Does the California Constitution implicitly include the “Public Trust Doctrine” or does it need to be added explicitly? What would it mean to do so?

• What about groundwater? Can the State afford to maintain its “hands-off” attitude? Would there really be any benefits to expanding state jurisdiction? What’s the potential harm?