Why? All that water is being used for direct human consumption. Isn't that better use than a gallon per almond? I think so.
To resolve the issue, they are lobbying[0] to have the groundwater laws adjusted to allow companies to treat and return their own water back to groundwater aquifers without any oversight.
e.g. they may be allocated to pump 3,000 acre-feet of water/year, but if they pump 1,000 acre-feet of 'treated' wastewater back into the ground /somewhere/ then they are allowed to pump an additional 1,000 /plus/ 1,000 more the next year. And of course those are all virtual credits, they can acquire clean water wherever they like and dispose of 'treated' water into the ground wherever for credits, with little to no oversight.
[0] https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/water-wars/nestle-...
A quick google seems to give various sources that say:
* Farming uses about 80% of all water in california.
* Almonds use 17% of that (so 13% of all water use).
Are almonds important enough to use 13% of all water use in an area suffering increasing cripling drought? I'm happy to have a discussion about it, but calling it a small portion seems to greatly underplay almonds.
Ye gads, that's an amazing stat. I heard heard almonds were using a lot water, but never the scale. For a strictly luxury crop, that is an unbelievable amount of resources in a state with 11 desalination plants.
Almonds are luxury?
Even if we take your googled numbers as fact, it's a relatively small minority of the total farming production in the region.
What isn’t careful, in my opinion, is to take some poorly thought out “water rights” rules and keep applying them, while it is clear they are not fit for purpose and various water levels, both above and below ground, continue to reach new lows every year.
Farming is needed and I'm all for farming, but that's for fruits and vegetables which like almonds I doubt they take up that much water. If I had to guess it would probably be some type of animal feed that is wasting all that water.
I remember reading a story somewhere where the saudi's were buying up land that had these old water rules to grow animal feed to bring back home. When other countries start using you this way to me is a sign of a BIG problem in your policies.
Alfalfa is the culprit you're looking for. Thirsty crop, grown in the desert, and almost exclusively for nonhuman consumption.