A good start. No better thinking on the subject than this must watch doc by former Nature Conservancy lead scientist Sanjayan:
One solution = more beaver! We need to bring beavers back to areas in which they used to thrive (like California).
Economical, environmentally friendly, and they’re cute little buggers!
Two things about this: first the “private” portion - who monitors how and when they control water supply, and whether they’re going to make the DrumpfBucks on it?
And second - who was that comedian in the '80s who griped about Ethiopians: “They live in the desert! Why don’t they just MOVE?” Sound question, especially for places like Arizona where old people go to vote for Arpaio.
That comedian was the great Sam Kinison who oddly enough was killed in a auto accident on a highway in the California desert.
If the Corps of Engineers are involved, and the article doesn’t say, their water projects routinely involve shared funding between the federal government and local governments. This is built into the laws governing how these things get done.