Firefighters are working to contain the Los Angeles fires. As of Jan. 16, the Palisades Fire consumed more than 23,000 acres and was 31% contained. The Eaton Fire, which has scorched more than 14,000 acres, was 65% contained.
Containing the fires has been challenging, and firefighters have had trouble accessing the water in some areas, as we have previously reported.
VERIFY reader Jackie recently texted us to ask if it’s true that most of the state’s water is controlled by one billionaire couple – Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who own Wonderful Co. The Los Angeles-based company produces popular products like Wonderful Pistachios, Fiji Water, POM Wonderful and more.
This X post with 4 million views claims the Resnick’s own “the majority of California’s water.”
THE QUESTION
Is most of California’s water owned by one billionaire couple?
THE SOURCES
- Rebecca Kimitch, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- California State Water Resources Control Board
- Kern Water Bank Authority
- California Department of Water Resources
- Statement from the Wonderful Co.
- Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center
THE ANSWER
No, most of California’s water isn’t owned by one billionaire couple.
WHAT WE FOUND
Wonderful Co., owned by the Resnick family, does not own a majority of California’s water. While the company uses a significant amount, it accounts for only a small fraction of the state’s total water usage. Claims that the Resnick’s water use contributes to shortages hindering firefighting efforts are also unfounded.
“At no time during this fire has there been a shortage of water in southern California,” Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center, a think tank that tracks water usage, says. “Their reservoirs are full. And there is nothing to be done with water that would have changed the course of these fires.”
Rebecca Kimitch, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), confirmed to VERIFY “there is not one entity that controls the water supply in California.” The California State Water Resources Control Board also says, “water is protected for the use and benefit of all Californians. California’s waters cannot be owned by individuals, groups, businesses, or governmental agencies.”
A 2021 Forbes report shows that Wonderful Co. uses 150 billion gallons of water annually. PPIC Water Policy Center data from 1998 to 2015 says that California uses an average of 25.16 trillion gallons of water per year. If we divide 150 billion by 25.16 trillion, that results in 0.6% – less than 1% – not 60%, as viral posts and articles claim.
In a statement, Wonderful Co. emphasized that their water usage is less than 1% of California’s total and refuted claims of water ownership.
“There is zero truth that any individual or company, much less ours, owns or controls most of the water in California,” the statement said.
The false claim about the Resnick’s use of water is also likely connected to their 57% ownership of water rights in the Kern Water Bank Authority, a privately owned groundwater storage reservoir about 145 miles from the Pacific Palisades fire in California. The Kern Water Bank can store up to 489 billion gallons of water, according to the authority’s website.
While the Resnick’s have 57% ownership of the water rights in the Kern Water Bank, they do not own the actual water, but rather the rights to use it. Water rights ownership grants legal entitlement to a specific amount of water. The Kern Water Bank’s water is distributed through member agencies rather than directly to the public. Its resources are allocated based on agreements between private and public stakeholders and is governed by a board of directors, the Kern Water Bank’s website says.
According to the California Department of Water Resources, all of California’s groundwater basins have the capacity to hold somewhere between 850 million and 1.3 billion acre-feet. That is over 423 trillion gallons of water.
That means Kern’s Water Bank supply alone is about 0.12% of all of California’s groundwater basin supply.
Kern Water Bank primarily provides agricultural and municipal water storage and is not being used to fight the fires in Los Angeles, the Wonderful Co. statement said.