Allegations that a wealthy couple, Stewart and Linda Resnick, are stockpiling water needed for the war Southern California wildfires Is spreading widely online. While the Resnicks have water rights in the state, they claim they are hoarding supplies or hindering fighting. control the fire Are not true. Here's what we know.
Who is Resnick?
Stewart and Linda Resnick are the owners of Wonderful Company. Established in 1979, their portfolio includes Wonderful Pistachios, POM Pomegranate Juice, Hello Tangerines – agribusinesses that all require water – and Fiji Water. The company claims to be one of the world's largest food producers and grows a large portion of its produce in California.
However, Resnix has a major stake in Cairn Water Bank — a 32-square-mile underground reservoir 150 miles west of Los Angeles — that has drawn negative attention in recent weeks.
The Kern Water Bank can hold approximately 500 billion gallons of water. Resnicks owns 57% of that water. The sheer amount of water is sparking anger online, with some people on social media mistakenly claiming that the pair own 60% of the water in the state and accusing them of being one of the reasons firefighters There is shortage of essential water. fight fireThose claims are not true.
How do California water rights work?
In California, water rights are owned by a group of municipalities, homeowners, and agricultural interests. Rights holders do not own the actual water; They have the right to use water. The California State Water Resources Control Board explains that water rights are “legal permission to use a reasonable amount of water for a beneficial purpose such as swimming, fishing, farming or industry.” Rights holders are also allowed to sell access to their water.
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Felicia Marcus, former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, points out that the state constitution includes a “prohibition on waste and improper use.” This means that if “you're really stuck in a situation where someone was holding off water on a large scale,” the government can intervene. In such situations, the state is allowed to order rights holders to reduce their water use, redirecting water. In areas where there is greater need and, in some cases, cancel the water itself.
According to a Wonderful Company spokesperson, the Kern Water Bank is one of several sources of water over which the company has rights, and it only goes into the Kern Water Bank during dry years.
“The Wonderful Company uses less than 1% of the state's water and does so as part of a community of farmers and ranchers who together produce a quarter of our nation's food – in our case, only healthy food ,” Seth Oster, chief corporate affairs officer at Wonderful Company, told CBS News.
What does this have to do with Los Angeles-area fires?
Resnick's water rights are not affected Los Angeles water supply Throughout the wildfire crisis.
In the event of a severe drought, Los Angeles County or the city may request water from the Kern Water Bank. However, according to the California Department of Water Resources, the reservoirs that cities and counties in Southern California depend on are currently at or above historical averages.
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“What's happening in L.A. is not because there isn't enough water in storage in L.A.,” Marcus told CBS News. “There are no urban water systems that are designed to handle this type of fire.”
Marcus admits there are problems in the state's water system — including difficulty enforcing restrictions, confusing rules and regulations and a tiered system that gives more privileges to more senior rights holders.
“There are some issues with the water rights system in California, I want to be clear on that, but it's not [related to] This fire,'' he said.