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Farmers in Mexicali are protesting again, arguing they haven’t been paid in full for pulling land out of production to save water for the imperiled Colorado River.

The farmers argue they’ve only been paid half for the amount of land they’ve left out of production. Earlier this month those farmers staged a days-long sit-in at the offices of CONAGUA, Mexico’s federal water agency. They claim they’re still owed millions of dollars, which ultimately come from the U.S. government under international agreements to compensate farmers who agree not to grow crops and save river water.

On Monday, Conservation groups sued the Trump administration for pumping excessive amounts of water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in a way that harms imperiled fish.

The lawsuit says that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by exceeding regulations intended to limit the Central Valley Project’s impacts on Central Valley steelhead, North American green sturgeon, and Chinook salmon.

In the age of climate change and drought swings, California is setting a statewide water supply target for the first time to offset supply issues and help power 18 million homes. Ryan Yamamoto reports.

A mammoth solar farm is moving forward in the heart of California. If built, which seems increasingly likely, it would cover 200 square miles of land and generate 21,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power entire cities. Huge batteries will store some of that power until it’s needed most.

Farmers are among the project’s backers. They don’t have enough water to grow crops on big chunks of their land, and they’re looking for new uses for it.

The history of Southern California has always been inextricably intertwined with the story of its water supply. Southern California has a dry, Mediterranean climate with limited rainfall. While Southern California is more temperate than the hotter desert climes of Las Vegas and Phoenix, its relatively dry climate cannot sustain a large urban population base.

In the late 1800s as Los Angeles and the surrounding region began to grow, the population relied primarily on the limited rainfall which fed the intermittent flows of the Los Angeles River and replenished the local groundwater basins. By the late 1890s, the discovery of oil reserves in Southern California led to an economic boom and a growing population. It became clear to everyone that Southern California would need to supplement its local water supplies if growth were to continue.