Residential users use about 10% of the water, last time I looked. Larger users are alpha, hay, and rice. So if we ban growing rice in the desert, we will have plenty for the people. CA rice is probably for export, because it is the shor grain variety, not the long grain that most of us eat.

That is true, but what parent is alluding to is that the rest of California would have a monopoly on our water supply. The real demand matters little when said demand is inelastic and only one guy controls it.

This is probably the one biggest reason why nation-states exist as they do today. The sum of the parts is less than the whole. This leads to some interesting ideas. What if societies go through downturns (and even collapse) because the central bureaucracy becomes a net negative instead of a net positive, as is happening in California today? But this digresses from the topic at hand.

Actually not. San Francisco, and East Bay MUD which supply much of the SF Peninsula and the East Bay both own their own Sierra dams and infrastructure. I dont think a hostage situation would ensue.

10% of which water? My guess is in the 'bay area city state', which doesn't include a great deal of agricultural land, that figure is much higher.

And since California, minus the BACS is going to be that much more rural, it's going to tilt just a little bit in favor of those users.

Why ban specific uses instead of just charging appropriate prices for water?

What about distillation. I have read a few science articles claiming the price of distillation is coming down and a viable alternative than pumping water great distances.

I can't find the one from Popular Science, but I did a quick google search and found this article. Though, I don't know its accuracy.

from http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_quality/quality1/1-ma...

Here's a few reasons why...Seawater provides an unlimited, reliable water supply for coastal populations worldwide; brackish water is a plentiful, relatively drought-proof water resource for inland populations and reduces dependency on imported water. And, of all the Earth's water, 97 percent is salt water, only 1 percent is fresh water available for humans to drink, and 2 percent is frozen. Of the more than 7,500 desalination plants in operation worldwide, 60% are located in the Middle East. The world's largest plant in Saudi Arabia produces 128 MGD of desalted water. In contrast, 12% of the world's capacity is produced in the Americas, with most of the plants located in the Caribbean and Florida.

To date, only a limited number of desalination plants have been built along the California coast, primarily because the cost of desalination is generally higher than the costs of other water supply alternatives available in California (e.g., water transfers and groundwater pumping). However, as drought conditions occur and concern over water availability increases, desalination projects are being proposed at numerous locations in the state. Desalination costs are decreasing as technology improves and more plants are built. Today there are more than 15,000 desalination plants in 120 countries. The desalination market is forecast to grow more than $70 billion in the next 20 years. About half of the world's desalted water is produced with heat to distill fresh water from seawater.