Farmers drained Shasta River and get $4,000 California fine
For eight straight days this summer, farmers in far Northern California drained almost all of the water out of a river in defiance of the state’s drought regulations. The move infuriated environmentalists and salmon-dependent Native American tribes downstream. California now knows the cost of the farmers’ blatant defiance: Less than $50 per farmer. It’s the latest example of California’s lax water-use enforcement process — problems that were first exposed in a sweeping Sacramento Bee investigation published online last week.
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