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Back to To the Point

To the Point

Taming Water Use in the Wild West

Yesterday, after four years of drought, Governor Jerry Brown stood on dry grass where the snow pack is normally five feet deep and announced the state's first-ever mandatory restrictions on the use of water — escalating water wars between urban and agricultural users.

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By Warren Olney • Apr 2, 2015 • 1 min read

Yesterday, after four years of drought, Governor Jerry Brown stood on dry grass where the snow pack is normally five feet deep and announced the state's first-ever mandatory restrictions on the use of water — escalating water wars between urban and agricultural users. The shortage of water's unprecedented, but the competition is nothing new -- and it's not just in California, which gets much of its water from winter snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. People in Las Vegas and Phoenix, as well as Los Angeles, are pitted against the farmers who feed the rest of the nation and other parts of the world. Will states with no choice but to share water get together to resolve a crisis that's never going away?

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    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

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    Sáša Woodruff

    Producer, 'To the Point'

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    Jenny Hamel

    KCRW

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    Andrea Brody

    Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast

  • KCRW placeholder

    Mark Hertsgaard

    Nation magazine

  • KCRW placeholder

    Chris Scheuring

    California Farm Bureau Foundation

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    Thomas Painter

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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