Some causes of California’s extraordinary, historic drought are natural: in 2013, less rain fell in California than in any year since 1850. Yet other causes are man-made: federal restrictions have been placed on the amount of water that California’s water system can pump from the Delta into the aqueducts serving urban and agricultural water users, brought about by actions of environmental groups.

Water deliveries to farms and cities south of the Delta have been cut by 30 to 40 percent, allegedly to save endangered fish species. New rules prevent increased winter precipitation from being conveyed and stored in reservoirs, leaving the water to continue to run unused into the ocean.

The second-driest period on record in California was 1976-77 with 19.0 inches of precipitation. Storage in major reservoirs was 37 percent of historic average in 1977. In 1977, federal and state water allocations to water users were 25 percent and 40 percent respectively.

This year, late rains brought 26.6 inches of precipitation by April 4. Storage in major reservoirs was 68 percent of historic average as of March 31. Yet, federal and state water allocations south of the Delta are zero percent of contracted amounts for the first time in history through September, with an historic, potential five percent water allocation for exchange contractors.

Even with storage in major reservoirs at 110 percent of normal in April 2012, federal and state water allocations south of the Delta were 40 percent and 60 percent respectively on April 16, 2012. It appears that a 40 to 60 percent allocation is the new 100 percent, and that allocation decisions are more influenced by politics than by hydrology.

The Delta flow criteria issued by the State Water Board on Aug. 3, 2010, and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan planning process reflect more priority being given to the Delta ecosystem than to providing a more reliable water supply for California.

California now allows a handful of bureaucrats to govern the water supply for a state of 38 million people. It will remain that way until the people of California take control of their own future.

Cutbacks on water use are not really about saving fish. Modern eco-activists want to dismantle industrial civilization and de-develop the United States. Environmentalists are using water allocations allegedly to save fish in order to make it impossible for the state to grow. Eco-activists are using the guise of fish and a natural drought to destroy the agriculture industry, as they used the spotted owl to destroy the timber industry, and the lives of people who depend on each.

Providing additional water storage reservoirs and water conveyance infrastructure to increase water storage capacity is only half of the solution. Eco-activists effectively are dismantling the state’s water system, and are positioned to drain or impede any new water storage and conveyance infrastructure. Political realities must be addressed.

Rather than spend money to appease eco-activists, such as on the BDCP, water users ought to spend this money on political campaigns to elect legislators who would pass legislation to represent water users’ interests. Then federal judges would be tasked with upholding laws favorable to people rather than fish. Laws need to address the very real impacts on people caused by having insufficient water rather than the speculative impacts on fish.

Farmers, homebuilders, and other industries must move beyond cronyism or seeing one another only as competitors; they must unite for the common good and to defend civilization itself.

Placing importance on being political helps to control one’s own destiny.

Developing the political clout to protect water for people is not a matter of financial resources; it is a matter of will.

Bruce Colbert is executive director of the Property Owners Association of Riverside County, a nonprofit, public policy research, lobbying and educational organization, formed in 1983 to protect the interests and private property rights of landowners in the formation and implementation of public policies.