The price of environmental damage in California? Less than a tank of gas for these farmers

What is the cost of defying California’s environmental laws? Less than $50.

That’s all Northern California farmers will pay for blatantly draining the Shasta River in defiance of the state’s drought regulations last summer, likely killing protected salmon.

The Shasta River Water Association is an irrigation district serving about 100 farmers and ranchers in Siskiyou County. Over eight days, its members drained nearly two-thirds of the river to fill livestock ponds in the area.

This was the primary finding of a Bee investigation that suggests California is unable to stop farmers from draining water as they wish — no matter how much damage is done to the environment.

In theory, the State Water Resources Control Board has broad authority to regulate how water is used and to punish those who misuse it. But as The Bee’s investigation revealed, that authority is hopelessly undermined by “a convoluted web of state and federal laws.”

State authorities are not even equipped to effectively track water consumption. Water disappears, and state officials often have no idea where it went.

It’s clear that California farmers understand these systemic weaknesses and exploit them.

The irrigation district was fined $500 per day, for a total fine of approximately $4,000. But district administrators were savvy enough to shut off their pumps before the fee would have increased to $10,000 a day.

What good are laws meant to protect the state’s rivers, which are already suffering from chronic water shortages, if California is not prepared to enforce them?

Not only is there no deterrent; there is no remorse. The association’s president, Jim Scala, has said that he doesn’t want the association to pay a dime, because if they do, “it’ll be like admitting that we were in the wrong.”

The Bee’s investigation found that on average, only 11% of California farms and cities have complied with the state’s 2015 law requiring them to accurately monitor and report their water use to the Water Resources Control Board.

In the Shasta Valley, where the egregious draining took place this summer, the compliance rate is even lower — just 7%.

There are only 1,000 functioning gauges on a California river system that spans nearly 200,000 miles. The Bee found that in a recent report by a consortium of state agencies, the shortage of stream gauges “results in data gaps that hamper effective management of California’s limited water resources.”

The state Legislature and the governor must give the water board the authority and the tools to act quickly and decisively. And the state’s infrastructure must be able to track water use and diversions accurately.

The state must enforce its water laws to protect what can’t protect itself: Our fragile environment.