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Gov. Jerry Brown wants to forbid you from hosing down the driveway. And he is really cranky about lawn watering. But corporate agriculture is free to plant all the water-gulping nut orchards it desires, even in a semi-desert. This is the essence of the governor’s new long-term drought policy that he announced Monday.

Brown intends to make permanent some urban water conservation rules that had been temporary. He also plans to give communities more flexibility to decide how much water they should save, depending on local conditions. But it’s basically hands off agriculture.

With its dedication in December 2015, the $1 billion Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant opened a spigot to the Pacific Ocean, creating a new, drought-proof source of drinking water for 3.1 million people in San Diego County, CA.

As the largest ocean desalination plant in the nation and Western Hemisphere, the Carlsbad Plant is considered the future of water desalination in the U.S. by its proponents.

Much of the water that California receives from the Colorado River flows to the Imperial Valley, where canals spread out across fields of hay, wheat and vegetables of all sorts, from carrots to broccoli.

Because the Imperial Irrigation District holds the single largest entitlement to water from the river, its participation would be vital in any agreement for California to share in water cutbacks to avert a looming shortage in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir. But major hurdles remain for the district to support a potential deal, and the reasons begin with the shrinking Salton Sea.

Gene Lee poured a jug of water over his head after a recent surf session at San Onfore State Beach.

The San Clemente surfer understood when the state needed to turn off the showers in the midst of the drought last year, and he still brings water from home for his after-surf rinse. But with all the recent rainfall and snowpack in the northern part of the state this year, he wonders if it’s time for the state to turn the showers back on.

Now that plans to pump underground water from deep in the Mojave Desert have survived a legal challenge, project developer Cadiz Inc. faces hurdles in delivering the water to customers around Southern California. A state appeals court on Tuesday, May 10, upheld six rulings in the company’s favor on various environmental and procedural challenges.

But Cadiz must now resolve two key issues before moving the $225 million project forward. It needs the federal Bureau of Land Management’s approval to use railroad right of way for a 43-mile pipeline that would carry the water to the Colorado River.