The origin of water rights is the starting point, or source.
Why dig up pristine lands to allow millions of folks to move and ruin the environment? That's what El Lay allowed to happen. We are careful not to repeat their mistakes.
We actually have green belts in-between cities here. In our county it's mandatory because we established
Urban Limit Lines around each city. Urban Limit Lines, wot? ULLs are one reason why property values are expensive here because 35% of any city's perimeter won't ever be built upon.
The whole point is that El Lay lives above their environmental means and expects good ol' NorCal (...or others) to always fix things for them - such as water - when they get into a pickle.
We're stopping the dysfunctional relationship.
