Allegations that a wealthy couple, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, have been hoarding water needed to fight the pandemic. Southern California wildfires has been widely circulated online. While the Resnicks do own water rights in the state, they claim they are hoarding water or hindering the fight for them Control the fire Not true. Here's what we know.

Who is Resnick?

Stewart Resnick and Lynda Resnick own Wonderful. Founded in 1979, their product portfolio includes Wonderful Pistachios, POM pomegranate juice, Halo tangerines (agribusinesses that all require water) and Fiji Water. The company claims to be one of the world's largest food producers, with a large portion of its products grown in California.

What has drawn negative attention in recent weeks, however, is the Resnick family's large stake in the Kern Reservoir, a 32-square-mile underground reservoir 150 miles from Los Angeles.

Kern Reservoir holds nearly 500 billion gallons of water. The Resnick family owns 57% of the water source. Such large amounts of water sparked outrage online, with some on social media falsely claiming the couple owned 60% of the state's water and blaming them for being one of the reasons firefighters lacked the necessary water. put out fire. These claims are not true.

How do California water rights work?

In California, water rights are owned by municipalities, homeowners and agricultural interests. Rights holders do not own the actual water; they own the right to use it. The California Water Resources Control Board clarifies that a water right is “the legal permission to use a reasonable amount of water for beneficial purposes such as swimming, fishing, agriculture, or industry.” Rights holders can also sell rights to their water.

Felicia Marcus, former chairwoman of the California Water Resources Control Board, explained that the state constitution includes “prohibitions on waste and unreasonable use.” This means that if "you actually have a situation where someone is withholding water on a large scale," the government can step in. In such cases, the state can order the rights holder to reduce water use, redirect water use to areas with greater need, and in some cases, even cancel the water rights themselves.

According to a Wonderful Company spokesman, the Kern Reservoir is one of several water sources the company owns and uses the Kern Reservoir only during drought years.

“Wonderful Company uses less than 1% of the state’s water and is part of a community of farmers and ranchers who collectively produce a quarter of our nation’s food — in our case, only healthy food,” Chief Corporate Affairs Seth Oster, a Wonderful Company official, told CBS News.

What does this have to do with the fires in the Los Angeles area?

The Resnicks' water rights are not affected Los Angeles water supply The whole wildfire crisis.

During severe droughts, the County or City of Los Angeles may require water from the Kern Reservoir. However, all of the reservoirs that Southern California cities and counties rely on are currently at or above historical averages, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

"What's happening in Los Angeles is not because Los Angeles doesn't have enough water storage," Marcus told CBS News. "There's no purpose-built city water system to handle a fire like this."

Marcus acknowledged problems with the state's water system, including difficulties enforcing restrictions, confusing rules and regulations and a tiered system that provides more privileges to senior rights holders.

"There are issues with California's water rights system, and I want to make that clear, they have nothing to do with this fire," she said.