International Business Times quotes Professor Buzz Thompson on the complicated issues behind California water rights laws as attempts to lessen the effects of the ongoing drought continue.

At a time when California is entering the fourth year of a record-breaking drought, farmers in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River delta have offered to surrender 25 percent of the water available to them this year. These farmers, who hold the state’s century-old “senior water rights,” made the offer late on Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In exchange for drawing 25 percent less river water, the farmers reportedly want guarantees that they would be spared from any future water cuts, even if the drought worsens. State officials are expected to decide whether to accept the offer by Friday, AP reported.

…

“California has one of the most complicated water rights systems in the United States, if not the world,” Buzz Thompson, professor of law at Stanford University, reportedly said. “In a period of drought, it means some people, the junior people, don’t get any water at all. And the more senior appropriators may get all of the water they’re entitled to.”