http://www.newsweek.com/california-accepts-farmers-offer-cut-water-use-25-percent-exchange-protection-335195
California government employees announced Friday that the state would accept a proposal made by some farmers earlier this week to voluntarily cut their water use by 25 percent during the upcoming peak growing season. Farmers who opt into the voluntary program would be protected from potentially deeper cuts during the period, which runs from June 1 to September 30.
The farmers involved irrigate in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region and hold “riparian” water rights, meaning they draw water directly from the flowing river delta to irrigate land on its banks.
These riparian rights are different from other water rights in the state. While most other farmers get their water from aqueducts and from the state and federal water projects which allocate water based on a longstanding priority system of “senior” and “junior” water rights, riparian rights holders have rights to divert a specific proportion of the river’s natural flow to irrigate their crops. In other words, when the flow decreases, as in times of drought, the state restricts their access to water proportionally to the new, lower volume.