PBS News Hour

JUDY WOODRUFF

As California faces what is predicted to be one of its worst droughts in recorded history, water managers are seeing record increases in water theft, leaving communities angry and police playing a continuous game of Whac-A-Mole with water bandits constantly on the move. Byrhonda Lyons of the nonprofit news site CalMatters has the story of how water meant for residential use is flowing to illegal marijuana farms.

BYRHONDA LYONS

In California's desert, a San Bernardino County water manager who didn't want to be identified doubles as an amateur detective.

WOMAN

These are all cannabis farms. Here's a great big one. This is one of the guys that I kicked off the water station. He was taking a lot of loads of water.

BYRHONDA LYONS

Bandits are stealing millions of gallons of water. Driving water trucks, tankers and pickups, they're tapping into lakes and rivers, fire hydrants, and filling stations. They're siphoning off water from homes, farms and wells. So, who's on the receiving end of all this stolen water? Local officials say it's often illegal pot farms, which is an estimated $8 billion industry in California.

WOMAN

There's one over there. There's some out there.

BYRHONDA LYONS

The desert is now strewn with makeshift pot farms. California allows them, with proper permits and local approval. But the penalty for growing even thousands of marijuana plants is only a misdemeanor and a $500 fine; 80 percent of California's roughly 30,000 pot farms are illegal, according to the state water board. BILL BODNER,

DEA Special Agent in Charge

Where these grows are, they do not have running water hooked up there. So they either have to drill wells, or they have to truck in water from other areas. And that's where the incentive to steal water comes from.

BYRHONDA LYONS

From Siskiyou County on the Oregon border to San Bernardino County on its Arizona border, some California communities are seeing their municipal water being stolen. In Helendale, the local water district hired a private security guard to investigate who was stealing water. Kelly Gregg's discovery was alarming. KELLY GREGG,

True Liberty Protection Services

So, what we found was a multitude of locations the illegal grows were pulling water from. Some of those locations are on abandoned properties, private properties, and the like.

BYRHONDA LYONS

In addition to outright theft, there's also a black market where residents sell their water to middlemen. In Helendale, a court ruling restricts how much water residents can pump for their own use. But when black market buyers show up with their tanks and their cash, land-owners cut deals, says Kimberly Cox, manager of Helendale's water supply. KIMBERLY COX, General Manager,

Helendale Community Services District

Wells in many cases are now abandoned, or the people that are living in those houses with the wells will sell their water to these haulers.

BYRHONDA LYONS

The state can fine bandits up to $1,000 a day, but that's a pittance for players in a multibillion-dollar illegal pot industry. Tim Smith, president of Helendale's water services, is frustrated. TIM SMITH, President,

Helendale Community Services District

There's no teeth in any of the laws. We're at the mercy of whatever.

BYRHONDA LYONS

Local police have started raiding more illegal pot farms to try to reduce demand. But for people like Jo Hansen, who's been a victim of water theft, the influx of new water users has complicated the mundane task of hauling water to her home. JO HANSEN,

California

I don't know who breaks my water lines and does all this chaotic crap they do, but, I mean, they steal constantly up here.

BYRHONDA LYONS

The San Bernardino water manager says she's frustrated by the lack of authority to deal with water theft.

WOMAN

Is there a mechanism to cut off the water to these farms without having the response be very negative and forceful? No one -- no one's tried this. We're not enforcement officers. We don't carry guns.

BYRHONDA LYONS

In the meantime, Governor Gavin Newsom has asked Californians to cut their water usage by 15 percent. The state water board recently moved to temporarily stop thousands of Central Valley farmers from diverting water from a major watershed.

WOMAN

There is a reluctance to ask our customers to cut back, when there are -- when there is this kind of customer who seems to be taking the water without regard for the drought.

BYRHONDA LYONS

As climate change continues to wreak havoc, causing fires and droughts, California's demand for water shows no signs of easing, whether for use in homes, fields or illegal pot farms. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Byrhonda Lyons in Richmond, California.

JUDY WOODRUFF

And yes, all this as the world worries about climate change and heads into a global conference, in fact, to talk about it.