Not that this is a simple answer politically, but every time I see an article about whether we should use water on almonds[1] or alfalfa[2] or six endangered fish, I wish we would just price water more appropriately, and let more valuable uses of water win out over less. Wouldn't solve this particular issue, but a more appropriate price for this decision would at least help focus minds on what exactly is the tradeoff.

This sort of thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/business/economy/the-price...

[1] http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/0...

[2] http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065...