The California farms stealing water from Native peoples
The Navajo Nation is one of many tribal nations with water rights to the Colorado River, but water is dwindling as corporate farms in California use it up.
On June 22, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Arizona v. Navajo Nation that the United States is not obligated to protect water rights to the Colorado River for the Navajo Nation. This ruling comes more than 150 years after the U.S. government established the Nation’s reserved rights to approximately 17 million acres of land including the portion of the Colorado River that runs through it.
To clarify, the ruling does not negate water rights established in 1868 for the Navajo Nation, but perhaps more importantly, it rejects the Nation’s proposal that the government take “affirmative, judicially enforceable steps” to secure water for the Nation.
There are 30 federally recognized Tribes in the Colorado River Basin, of which a majority retain legal rights to use 3.2 million acre-feet of water via the Colorado River system. Many are unable to exercise their rights fully.
The Navajo Nation, for example, is permitted full access to water within the reservation. Still, it lacks the infrastructure to compete with several hundred California farms that rapidly consume Colorado River water through the manmade Coachella Canal. As a result, the Colorado River is quickly diminishing as a viable water source.
The farms in question lie in southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District (IID). Imperial County residents are comparatively more impoverished than those of neighboring counties. Recent data shows that 21 percent of the population for whom poverty status is determined in Imperial County live below the poverty line, one of the highest percentages among California counties and almost twice the official poverty rate in the U.S. The farms, however, are some of the richest in the nation.
IID farms consume more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada combined. Farmers have invested in the bare minimum of water conservation since their inception in the early 20th century, primarily due to regulations and optics.
Water acquired by the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) via the farms’ mandatory fallowing program is used to mitigate damage to the nearby Salton Sea. IID farmers are fundamentally opposed to the program—which requires a quota of unplanted fields to redistribute water from—though the farms produce the vast majority of runoff polluting the Sea. Farms also receive thousands of dollars from SDCWA annually as reimbursement for crops that would otherwise populate fallowed land.
It would be redundant and inefficient to redistribute Colorado River water from the IID farm industry to tribal reservations within the Colorado River Basin. It would make more sense for these massive, lucrative farms to provide monetary compensation to the Tribes. Unfortunately, this outcome seems highly unlikely in light of the farmers’ resistance to even minimal fallowing programs aimed at water redistribution.
The best approach would entail water use regulations, but the Supreme Court has already shown they will not comply. California farmers’ unwillingness to cooperate and the government’s decision not to act means the Tribes dependent on the Colorado River need another solution to sustain their water supply.
Water justice in SoCal is the story of Los Angeles. Ever seen the classic Nicholson film, China Town ? True Story. A very complex and politically embattled topic that rarely receives the headline recognition the unfolding disaster deserves. But so much less and so consistent with the under-or-non-reporting of the Native People’s perspective. A perspective if we remember are legally and morally sovereign entities with whom the United States are treaty bound to provide the promises allocating resources that were made. Broken Treaties, Native Peoples. True Story. You add into the mix The Colorado River Basin Plan, which only retained 5% of its water for Nevada, and this is just another counter judicial decision that this rouge SCOTUS --Trump's SCOTUS--has rendered. Constitutional and environmental case book editors are doing well, at least, and at last their annually updated editions will include more than just updated font ! Note to self : Re-Review Washington State Salmon Fisheries Access Case.
I was thinking about why courthouses are made of stone. Besides the architecturals, maybe it’s for justice is as erosive and as ultimate as water. Perhaps the structures themselves disclose the contours of the justice that built their temples and houses of justice, You can't stop the flow of water. You can't stop the flow of justice. But it must be routed correctly or it, like water, is wasted. The branches of liberty require the proper irrigation of justice to flourish. And we find ourselves back to this very well framed and written article. Again, a subject I credit the writer for in their striking the fine balance between brevity and depth. Because this subject indeed has ample heaps of both. Now I have some cases I need to read up on.
Oh and OJ died today. A death without penance CBS reports. Water. Justice, Marginalized Peoples.
How timely you are.