“

David Phippen said David Phippen grandfather paid a premium price for hundreds of acres in the 1930s because it came with ironclad senior water rights. David Phippen said David Phippen takes those rights to the bank when David Phippen needs loans to replant almond orchards or install new irrigation lines. David Phippen fears that state officials are tampering with a system that has worked for years. In the water world, the pre-1914 rights were considered to be gold.