California
regulators on Monday proposed a first-of-its-kind, $1.5 million fine for a
group of Central Valley farmers accused of illegally taking water during the drought.
Associated
Press news agency says it would be the first such fine against an individual or
district with claims to water that are more than a century-old, known as senior
water rights holders.
Those who
hold those rights have long enjoyed immunity from cutbacks.
The fine
reflects the rising severity of California's four-year drought that has
prompted the state to demand cutbacks from even those who have been
historically sheltered from mandatory conservation.
The State
Water Resources Control Board said state data showed the Byron-Bethany
Irrigation District in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area diverted water from a
pumping plant even after it was warned in June that there wasn't enough legally
available.
The district
serves 160 farming families in three counties in the agriculture-rich Central
Valley and a residential community of 12,000 people.
