As drought drives prices higher, millions of Californians struggle to pay for water
As drought drives prices higher, millions of Californians struggle to pay for water
By
William Boothbay
SAN FRANCISCO
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
In the water-rich Central Valley, a little-known but important agricultural district
has been hit by the worst natural disaster in California’s history. But the valley
isn’t alone: The state is suffering from one of the nation’s worst droughts.
More than three-quarters of the state’s population — 7.4 million — now struggles
even to pay for its water.
“This is a public health crisis,” said Michael Gette, the state’s chief hydrologist.
With its historic drought now at an all-time high, the state is struggling to keep its
water-guzzling cities and farms flowing, and its farmers and residents can’t afford
to pay for the increasingly scarce water.
And that, in the end, is what the drought will do to communities of all
size.
In many ways, California, which is at the heart of the U.S. agricultural cycle,
hasn’t been this bad since the state suffered a devastating dust storm in February
1996, which killed at least 100 people, injured 2,000 and destroyed tens of thousands
of homes and businesses.
Then, as now, the drought hasn’t really been felt in the Central Valley, where
agriculture was just growing.
In the years after the dust storm, farmers found themselves with nowhere to
pitch and farmers markets were struggling to keep up with growing demand.
“We were very grateful for the dust,” said Robert Brown, a farmer from Los
Angeles. “But at the same time, to our disadvantage and our great disadvantage
in the end the drought took away what we could have produced, as well as the crops.”
The Central Valley was one of the few regions in the state that seemed to grow
out of the dust. It was growing crops that had always been a reliable
