Billionaire couple faces criticism over water control during Los Angeles wildfires

ISTANBUL

Stewart and Lynda Resnick, a billionaire couple who own around 60% of an important California water resource, have come under intense criticism for using more water than every home in Los Angeles combined, with critics arguing that their actions may be hindering efforts to contain the city’s ongoing wildfires.

The Resnicks, California’s wealthiest farming family, with a $13 billion fortune, have come under renewed criticism for their alleged overuse of water during Los Angeles' worst wildfires in history, according to the UK’s Daily Mail.

The controversy traces back to 1994, when their advisors played a key role in the Monterey Plus Agreement, a deal that transferred the taxpayer-funded Kern Water Bank from public ownership to private control.

Originally designed to ensure a stable water supply during droughts, the bank is now seen as a tool benefiting private interests.

Amid California's devastating wildfires, critics are highlighting this shift, arguing that it compromises the state's ability to manage water resources in times of crisis.

The family owns 185,000 acres of farmland and holds a major stake in the Kern Water Bank.

Their Wonderful Company, which produces Pom Wonderful, Fiji Water and Wonderful Pistachios, consumes around 150 billion gallons of water annually for its farmland, according to Forbes.

The Resnicks control 57% of the Kern Water Bank, one of California's largest underground water storage facilities, which is designed to help manage droughts. They have come under criticism, particularly during the 2011-2017 California drought, for selling water back to local governments and profiting from a resource initially meant for public use.

A 2016 report in Mother Jones magazine revealed that the Resnicks' farms used more water in some years than Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area combined.

Filmmaker Yasha Levine, co-director of Pistachio Wars, which explores the environmental and social impacts of large-scale nut farming and corporate water control in drought-hit California, argued that the Resnicks' control of water resources is unfair.

“The Resnicks are powerful, and their control of so much water is ridiculous,” Levine told the Daily Mail. “How can one family own more water than the entire city of Los Angeles, almost 4 million people, uses in one year?”
Levine also said that the wildfires, ongoing regional droughts and other environmental challenges are connected to the "larger political-technological machine that both LA and the Resnicks are plugged into."

Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at California's Pomona College, also criticized the Resnicks.

“Because of their water rights and their wealth, they are insulating themselves from the drought,” Miller said, as reported by Forbes.

“Private capital has no problem with the drought, while the rest of us do. That’s one of the deep social divides,” he added.

Since Jan. 7, large and destructive wildfires have been affecting Los Angeles and nearby areas. The Los Angeles wildfires have now killed 24 people. Firefighters are struggling to control the intense flames, driven by dry winds and record heat.