With Urban Water Use in California Cut, Agriculture Regulations Scrutinized

— -- After California failed to reach Gov. Jerry Brown's goal of 25 percent reductions outlined in a historic April 1 executive order, the state's Water Resources Control Board adopted even more stringent water restrictions Tuesday.

Agricultural water use continues to be largely exempt from recent regulations, amid criticism from water experts and environmentalists.

Cumulative water savings since last summer have totaled only 8.6 percent, far below the governor’s reduction goal, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. Under the new rules, cities have been ordered to cut water use by as much as 36 percent compared with 2013. Agriculture, which consumes 80 percent of the state’s water and accounts for only 2 percent of the state economy, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, has largely remained exempt from the recent regulations.

The board doesn't oversee water-use by agriculture.

“Nobody has addressed the agriculture issue,” William Patzert, a NASA Oceanography Research Scientist, told ABC News. “They’re trying to get through this drought without going head to head with farmers that have senior water rights.”

He added that growing water-intensive but high-profit crops such as almonds and walnuts for export was “living beyond your means.”

"They're providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to significant parts of the world," Gov. Brown told George Stephanopoulos last month on ABC's "This Week," where he defended the measures.

Conner Everts, facilitator of the Environmental Water Caucus, an organization that promotes sustainable water management, told ABC News, “The discussion no one wants to have is what crops we should grow.”

Everts added that agriculture was “the missing link” in addressing California’s historic drought.

On May 1, the California's Water Resources Control Board announced it would curtail junior water rights to Sacramento River and Delta surface water, the second year in a row the state has done so.

"Those orders affect thousands of individuals, many or most of them being farmers and ranchers," a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation wrote to ABC News in a statement.

The order did not address senior water rights holders and junior water rights holders can still access available ground water, which is fast depleting, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

"Unfortunately, many agricultural corporations are substituting precious and limited ground water to supply their crops many of which are for export," Jonas Minton, a water policy adviser for the Planning and Conservation League and a former state water official, told ABC News.

"That means even when this drought ends, we will have irretrievably lost much of the valuable ground water resource," Minton said.