California Water Hoarders

From the cited blog ...

... Lynda and Stewart Resnick -- the oligarch pistachio farmers of Beverly Hills -- are currently going viral. Influencers are out making tiktoks, tweets, and reels. They're outraged at finding out that one Los Angeles billionaire family controls more water than Los Angeles uses in an entire year. ...

Wait, what?

Taking a step back ...

How This Billionaire Couple Stole California's Water Supply (2022)
perfectunion.us

... In a series of secret meetings in 1994, the Resnicks seized control of California's public water supply. Now they've built a business empire by selling it back to working people. ...

While 40 million Californians suffer through unprecedented drought, one billionaire couple owns a massive share of the state's water system, largely seized in a series of secretive meetings two decades ago. ...

@#3

My first question ... who?

Stewart Resnick
en.wikipedia.org

... Stewart Allen Resnick[1] (born December 24, 1936) is an American billionaire businessman. Resnick is the wealthiest farmer in the United States[2][3] with a net worth exceeding eight billion dollars as of 2022.[4] Resnick and his wife, Lynda Resnick, bought The Franklin Mint in 1986 and sold it in 2006.[5]

Since 1979 Resnick has been the chairman and president of The Wonderful Company. ...

--- and ---

The Wonderful Company
en.wikipedia.org

... The Wonderful Company LLC (also known as Wonderful Co.,[2] formerly Roll Global) is a private corporation based in Los Angeles, California. With revenues of over $4 billion,[3] it functions as a holding company for Stewart and Lynda Resnick and as such is a vehicle for their personal investments in a number of businesses.

The company currently counts the following brands as business divisions: juice company POM Wonderful, bottled water company FIJI Water and flower delivery service Teleflora.

The Wonderful Company has been criticized for its excessive consumption of water in the state of California. ...

@#6

From the article cited in #6 ...

... With an estimated $6 billion in revenue and 175,000 square acres of farmland, 130,000 of which are in California, the Wonderful Company is one of the largest agricultural businesses in the state, growing pistachios, almonds, pomegranates, and citrus fruits.

The company used approximately 150 billion gallons of water in 2021, according to an estimate cited by Forbes. (A company spokesperson said estimates for 2022 and 2023 were in line with the 2021 figures). The Wonderful Company uses less than 1% of the state's water, Oster said.

According to California's Department of Water Resources (DWR), reservoirs statewide were holding 23.9 million acre-feet of water, or about 7.79 trillion gallons. That figure does not include current statewide ground water levels, where capacity is far greater. California's total ground water is estimated at 850 million to 1.3 billion acre-feet, according to the DWR.

Through the Wonderful Company, the Resnicks -- who have a net worth of $6.3 billion, according to Forbes -- own a 57% stake in the Kern Water Bank Authority, which manages a series of reservoirs and pipes near Bakersfield, Calif. that can store up to about 488 billion gallons of water. ...