some billionaire has staked claims to sell this water

I don’t really know how true it is, but my horticulture buddy up there made it sound like the water flowed through a number of small farms that really weren’t worth much until the population boom made land prices sky-rocket over the last 20 years.

The bigger issue in the area is that it is more how long the water rights have been retained. If your family bought your farm 150 years ago, you will get your water before the person that bought theirs 20 years ago. It doesn’t matter in wet years, but as soon as a drought hits the 150 year farm will get 80-100% of their water, while the 20 year farm will be lucky if they get 20%. If you bought water rights last year, you better conserve your seed and sell your animals quickly because you aren’t getting any water.

In a way it is completely fair, it isn’t the long-term farmers fault that the state is having an unsustainable population explosion. However, as one of those new residents who really didn’t understand the local laws when I moved there, I hated it.