By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California water regulators on Friday approved a plan by some of the state's most senior water rights holders to voluntary cut water use by 25 percent in exchange for assurances that they would not face further curtailments during the growing season.
So-called riparian growers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta who participate in the program have agreed to either reduce water diversions by 25 percent or fallow one-quarter of their land, said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board.
Riparian land borders natural waterways such as rivers or streams and growers with such farmland in the delta are among those with some of California's most senior, and therefore sacrosanct, water rights.
"We're in a drought unprecedented in our time. That's calling upon us take unprecedented action. We're in uncharted territory here, facing hydrology we've never seen," Marcus said.
"This proposal helps Delta growers manage the risk of potentially deeper curtailment, while ensuring significant water conservation efforts in this fourth year of drought,? she said.
The agreement comes as the board considers curtailing water diversions to senior water rights holders in California for the first time since the late 1970s.
Marcus applauded the voluntary cutbacks a creative solution by the riparian growers but conceded it might be unpopular with other senior water rights holders.
Water officials declined to estimate how much water the plan could save in the drought-parched state, saying it depended on how many farmers took part in the voluntary cutbacks, but called it an important symbolic move as the state grapples with severe water shortages
California is in its fourth year of a devastating drought that has prompted Governor Jerry Brown to impose the state's first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use, up to 36 percent in some communities.
Brown had been criticized for largely exempting agriculture from those severe restrictions.
California grows nearly half of all U.S. fruits and vegetables, mostly in the Central Valley, and ranks as the top farm state by annual value of agricultural products.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
