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For decades, California’s water debates have centered on a familiar tension: agriculture versus urban consumption. Agriculture, which consumes 80% of the state’s developed water supply, has long dominated discussions about conservation and efficiency. Yet, a new contender is emerging, one poised to dwarf agriculture in water demand and reshape the state’s water future: artificial intelligence (AI).

California’s agricultural sector is the backbone of the nation’s food supply, using approximately 34 million acre-feet of water annually — over 11 trillion gallons. This water sustains crops like almonds, grapes and rice, many of which are highly water-intensive and vital to the state’s economy. For decades, agriculture has been framed as the primary focus of water conservation efforts, with farmers frequently cast as both stewards and villains of California’s strained water resources.

 

A barrage of storms known as atmospheric rivers is expected to soak the West Coast over the next eight to 10 days, raising the risk of flooding, power outages and holiday travel disruptions leading up to Christmas in a region that has already experienced significant weather activity this season.

The bulk of the rain and snow is likely to fall between British Columbia and Northern California, with Washington and Oregon poised to have some of the wettest, sloppiest weather.

Since last month’s atmospheric river that drenched the North State, the water level in Lake Shasta — California’s largest manmade reservoir — has shot up nearly 20 feet.

And after a few dry days this week, get ready for more rain in the northern Sacramento Valley as the region enters another wet pattern that is expected to go through Christmas.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the nation’s health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has railed against the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water, a measure that public health experts and dentists credit with reductions in tooth decay. Seven out of 10 Americans who get their drinking water from public water systems receive fluoridated water, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.