California has plenty of water

I was driving through the Central Valley recently and saw an orchard of uprooted trees. I don't know what they were, but I assume that they'd been dug up because the farmer didn't want to irrigate them any more.

A pity. But California still grows rice.

Which is why I say California has plenty of water, it just does not use it particularly well. Since farmers do not pay for water in a metered way, or at market prices, they waste it. And since ground water is not regulated, they waste that too. Instead, we have a series of hairshirt awareness raising measures that do little to address the real, long term water needs of this area, and may actively hurt by crowding out such considerations with theater.

Some good references in this MR post.