And so the Water Wars begin.

people forget that a lot of California is agriculture, it's an extremely diverse state and is not just filled with surfers and vegans.

You drive up north from SoCal I remember seeing signs to give more water to farmers. Miles for miles you’ll see these signs off the freeway in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe it's getting a bit crowded in the LA area.

We need to start investing in more desalination projects. California is next to the biggest ocean in the world.

No one ever speaks on the fact that we have to address over population somehow. It was a mistake for humans to develop massive urban centers like L.A. Las Vegas and Phoenix.

This seems like half-news. You failed to mention all the ranches growing fruits and nuts for all these fruits and nuts living in L.A.

They owned the land and water rights and sold them to LA. How do these ranchers not understand that when you sell something, you don’t own it anymore?

LA's mission should be to get people to leave LA.

These are Ranchers not farmers.

No water for farmers and ranchers but water for the green lawns in LA?

Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown"

5:35 "We got the rights to the water and took what was ours." Hmmm.... 🤔🤔🤔

Desalination sounds logical but it is very expensive - requiring many big filters and a lot of power.

The landscape is beautiful.

In 1990: Meanwhile in Africa In 2019: Meanwhile in America

But if you don't leave enough water for the ones raising your food then you won't have a city to live in

Californians: lets bring back water engineering projects. 1 CA judge: Nah

I love the idea of desalination, but there's a fundamental problem. Desalination to provide the water would cost more in energy than the ranchers make using the same amount of water. That means it's more economical to pay the ranchers their current income as a stipend and then not give them the copious amounts of water required for agriculture. However, giving money is an entitlement. But if it will cost LA more money to give them the water, so isn't that a bigger entitlement? This is a tough situation, no doubt, and I suspect LA will take the least economic option, because it's California after all.

Meanwhile in the Midwest we have gotten more rain this June than ever recorded. So much rain that crops got planted very late.

San Luis reservoir in Merced county is owned by LA and it’s 4 and a half hours away

Perhaps it was a bad idea to create large communities in open desert. The very anti-organic, Los Angeles!

I wish this report would have dug into the ways in which all cities in desert communities can implement laws that decrease frivolous water consumption. Should California, a desert community, be allowed to have green lawns? should communities develop incentives for water catchment systems? should individual property owners be incentivized to use grey water for gardens and trees? Why does this report not include how accurate the claim of climate change is in relation to ranching? The city of LA isn't the only villain in this story.

If you let nature do its thing, the Owens Valley would be a thriving agricultural area. Los Angles has zero "rights" to water that would not normally flow its direction. If they can't survive on their own water works projects, ie: more reservoirs, ground water and desalinization. Then they ought to pay a hefty fee for the displacement of water resources. Diminishing those who live in Owens Valley, by calling them "just 6 ranchers" is what any greedy imperialist would say. The sad fact remains, that the day the aqueduct was completed, is what put the nail in the coffin for the economic growth of that region. It could have been a large population center. (especially by now) The weather ranges from 4 seasons, plenty of water, the soil is fertile (or easily can be made so) and it's strikingly beautiful. This right here is a prime example as to why California needs to be broken up into separate states. At least, if this was East California, they'd have legitimate financial claims to be able to sell the water, but be able to maintain enough for their own needs. They grow larger and have more water needs, tough shit... the price for water just went up. This natural economic cycle actually would encourage development in Los Angles' own water works infrastructure. At some point, a bean counter would ask, "does it make sense to keep paying East California for water, when we could desalinate for 1/3rd the cost?" And thus technological advancements are encouraged.

You can fix this, just ban lawns

If the big cities and the state had been doing long term Rain collection instead of letting it run right into the ocean I wonder if we would have this issue

Great reporting Vice. These are the type of stories I’m subscribed for.

Q: "Are you the villain? " A: "everyone is doing it.."

No very progressive of you Los Angeles.

" If you take water for agricultural purposes, you have to replace that water and SOMEONE has to pay for that" says the dude in glass that works for the city...Having to pay for water that is produced my mother nature smgdh

It is not just the ranchers that suffer due to water removal but the habitat!

Keep the water up north we need to save the delta✌

What's baffling is that on paper this is a sound idea as water levels would rise and fall. But when you take too much water away from an area it tends not to replenish as well as before. Like an unplugged bathtub. What I want to know is what's LA's plan when the water in Owens Valley dries up? Mono County might just get abandoned but that might just stop the complaining not the loss of water. And there's a particularly dry yet agricultural county next door, Kern County, who's basically on standby for when LA County comes looking for more water.

raising cattle in a water-short area does not make sense and leads to inevitable conflict as supplies diminish because of climate change. besides the US, like Europe, has an enormous oversupply of beef. Ranchers and farmers have to adjust to changing realities like all of us.

I feel sorry for them but they lease the land from LA they don't own the land. You don't have the same rights when you rent. Also I'm betting there's been years of abuse on both sides and if they are going to continue people in LA need to give up things like green lawns and the Ranchers are going to have invest in better irrigation or chg crops to ones that use less water. Conservation can work put the people of LA and even the farmers are going to have to drastically change their water usage . It's only going to get worse.

Sorry but beef production is one of the least efficient uses of water imaginable. The portion of the state's water used residentially is tiny compared to the portion used for agriculture, yet water conservation campaigns always focus on telling people to take shorter showers rather than focusing on the industries using many times more water than the total of everyone's showers. All urban water use only makes up 10% of the state's total water use, and people were able to cut this by 25% during the drought. Why is it too much to ask the meat and dairy industries to make changes?

Yeoman's Keyline Design! Look it up. It makes the AU outback able to be farmed. It can add 10,000gal of water per acre and keep grass greener longer into winter

if that amount of snow falls on the mountains then the same amount of rain falls on the land...you gotta hold the water back in the land

I drove through Mono county while going to Mammoth Lakes, and it is beautiful; my mom fell in love with Bishop. I really wish them the best of luck, and I hope everything works out.

Great clip

How much water is lost due to evaporation along the aqueduct? How much water could remain in Owens Valley if we covered the aqueduct. Same question for the central California aqueduct?

their ancestors stole the land and the government doesnt even charge them for their mortgages/tax (since they leased it prior to 1902) and their complaining about income, spoiled.

Why are they not talking about Stewart resnick? He is the owner of paramount farms and he uses more water everyday than all Californians combined. He also in a closed room deal with the governor and a few other California officials became the owner of the kern county water bank built for southern Californians to store water in case of a drought. But now it all belongs to Stewart resneck and he has used it to increase his wealth incredibly. He is the richest business man in Los Angeles. He has even sold that water to California so it could save some wetlands that have wildlife there that can only be found in that area. Californians paid him $30,000,000 for water that Californians paid for back in the 80’s. This is the man southern Californians need to be mad at. He is also the reason we have limits on water usage while he has none.

*I'M THIRSTY SOMEBODY GIVE ME A DRINK NOWWWWWWW..WHERE IS THE COTDAYMN WATER* 😠😠😠

If America no longer has the industry to produce industrial goods and then no longer has the water, land or desire to produce agricultural goods, then America loses out. Our economy shrinks, and our GDP shrinks as other countries begin to prosper. Corporations and companies will flee the USA. But sure, cow men bad! More water for LA!

Why not just build inland desalinization plants with aqueducts flowing inland from the ocean. The Pacific Ocean should meet Los Angeles water needs. It takes a lot of power to run a desalinization plant; build solar power farms. The construction of the solar fields, aqueducts, and desalinization plants would create jobs. The people of the upper California counties would be able to keep their water for farming. More produce would grow; farmers would make more money, and quite possibly the grocery prices would go down. This would be win win for everybody.

People forget that we are desert in Southern California. It’s the same Mediterranean weather as in Egypt and Israel. Water is a precious resource.

If this issue has been going on for a century, why are both sides not working together to solve it, who is profiting....

Read the book Cadillac Desert if you want learn more about the topic.

To convert saltwater into freshwater it cost around a billion dollars. We have plenty of saltwater and in the la area should have timers on how much water they use per month. they do that rest of the world especially in England. When rain does happen in England people ration it into big containers. They use that water feed The yards.

I thought we had a good snow pack last winter? Isn't there enough water for everybody?

But isn't cattle farming water intensive? A "vegan wave" is already happening - Impossible, Beyond, and other companies starting "lab grown" meat from cells etc., so maybe getting out of cattle ranching is an idea? it's obviously pretty complex, but isn't that a place to start?

Central Valley wells! - - All the ground water has been sold! Big new pumps galore been installed! Check it out.

Is this the area that Nestle gets their water from?

Why dont they set up a container so when it rains they can collect it all and reuse that for the farmers

Aren't there sources of water closer to Los Angeles?

L.A tried to do this to kern county but it didn't work

An interesting piece

Yea, let’s build a huge city in a desert. Sounds smart.

Wait a min @ViceNews According to @KTLA article 06/02/2019 Sierra Nevada Snowpack measures 202% of average for this time of year. So if this story was reported in the month of June, why wasn't the amount of snow included in this report? Doesn't this affect the ranchers? This issue between them and LA should not be a huge problem this year due to the fact of amount of snow/water California has totalled up this year from the snow! And is anyone paying attention to the mountain tops in the background? Yes you seen snow, yes it is June/July. Yes snow is still there. I can see it all the way from Sacramento when I drive over an overpass ramp I-80.

The desert will reclaim what belongs to it

That is awful those poor cows and others animals not including people.

Up here in Northern California we got extra water. You can take some. We’re the better part of the state anyways. Fun Fact: San Francisco had way more population than Los Angeles from the 1800’s up until 1910. It wasn’t until that aqua duct that connected to LA that the population grew rapidly.

Everyone that uses the Colorado river as a main water source is fighting California for it. The Hoover dam that is on the border between Nevada and Arizona collects and treats tons of water that mainly goes to California for agricultural use. Nevada and Arizona need to tell California to stop growing crops in the desert. Nevada has been trying to pass bills to build a pipeline from the northern part of our state to supply the south with water, even though we would have enough if we stoped sharing with California.

That's what happens when a place is over populated by 10 million people .

Los Angeles will win.

weird that the county was watering ugly ass vegetation along the freeways in LA county in a middle of a "drought" it made me realize, there is no drought!! its all to raise prices

Good on Mono County for suing the LADWP. Owens Valley was killed by this scar on my desert. I live in the Kern part of the shadow of the aqueduct. Desalination is the best option for you guys. The dwellers hate the aqueduct.

A. Ranchers are not farmers.

Seems as though it comes down to one thing: Who owns the water?

We need to stop treating water like it's an unlimited resource. There will be serious global shortages in our lifetime. You better hope you're either rich or close to a natural fresh water source in the future because the wars over fresh water are coming.

What happened to all the rain water this year been raining more then ever

Many of the rachers around here built they’re own wells. Expensive... but they can afford it and also the state of California can also afford other alternatives as well

Really, really, really old and well known history! Unsolvable now as before from the Owens Valley perspective. RIP agriculture there, LA turn off all landscaping H2O.

Jack is an O.G.

Jack Tatum is such a nice man, reminds me of my dad. Makes me want to say, he needs to come to Texas where people will treat him right. We like ranchers and farmers here. My heart aches for those people. They are not being treated fairly. I just pray to God that he will open the spouts of heaven and allow rain to fall heavily over their lands, enough for them to store up.

*Livin' it up at the Hotel California*

This is gonna lead to some mad max style shit.

So if the apocalypse happens, LA is the worst place to be

Now do San Francisco and Silicon Valley stealing water from the rest of California

Just call it the Owens Valley in the title. Stop the clickbait

Wish Vice made more content like this

San Francisco gets their water from the hetch hetchy reservoir above Yosemite...as far as I'm concerned Los Angels and San Francisco can take a fucking hike ,this is the water of the agricultural communitys of the valleys cause we all need food not freaks.

Nat Geo. picked up on this 2 or 3 years ago with a great docu. entitled "Water Wars : A California Heist." It was mind boggling and sad at the same time to see people in modern times using 1800's style clothes washing, etc, etc... It is all just another sign of the times, and just the beginning of the madness. The pedo's at Netflix are pushing this violence in a movie called "Worthy" and the water shortage in the script is used to create the title, only the "worthy" can access the dwindling water supplies.

LA only needs the water to make the hills lush green gardens rich neighborhoods look the same, lush and green, never seen a patch of yellow in any rich neighborhoods in LA, and California gets its water from Colorados Arkansas valley river

Save the water for the Ranchers.

#olaikawai as why, what about the first people's was taken from first???

This is about to be some Mad Max type shit

Does anyone look at the foriegn countries we let grow crops that take up tons upon tons in Arizona (or somewhere) that's completely depleting the Colorado River that used go to the Pacific ocean that's been drying up?

Ranchers should buy land with water right like we have to in north California. Why did they sell it to them back then and now complain?

0:12 Do I hear a wild Will Smith over there?

This fight is for rich people in LA. The biggest percentage of water used in many desert cities is not for human consumption, or cleaning. Most of it is for irrigating, golf courses, parks and people's lawns.

Took me a while to understand that they're saying rancher not rangers

Drill a well down to primary water

Take it out of the ocean desalt it hey that's a idea!!!🤔

What about all that fresh water in Northern Cali? So many rivers up there. Ironic ur fighting over water that dont come from ur state..

well.some plants dont as much

See if you can do a funding program to make more drinking water out of ocean water other countries are doing it why not us

cut off LA from our water, how bad could it b if that hell hole stoped existing, they aren’t the ones growing all the food anyway

Or. Heres a crazy idea... how about we stop having grass lawns :o saves like 80% of a households water and doesnt really do anything