Brown Meets Farmers, Environmentalists, Urban Water Agencies

Governor Jerry Brown met today with representatives of urban water agencies, the agriculture industry and environmental groups to get their thoughts on dealing with the drought.

"There’s a lot of ideas, there’s a lot of livelihoods, there’s a lot of nature, there’s a lot of critters that are being affected by all this and we have to make it work the best we can," he said.

Jay Ziegler is with the Nature Conservancy. He attened the meeting and suggested the state speed up its groundwater regulation plan.

"Anything we can do to accelerate the pace of groundwater implementation at the local level, to really manage surface water and groundwater resources in a more sustainable way is something I think everyone around this table can agree that we really need to strive to do," he said.  

Brown was criticized last week when he announced mandatory conservation restrictions that didn’t include the agriculture industry. Farmers say they’ve already had their water supplies reduced.