California water prices are at all-time high as a severe drought chokes off supplies to cities and farms across the Golden State. The price of water on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index touched $1,144.14 an acre-foot on June 27 — up 56% since the start of the year. The index tracks the average price of water-rights transactions in five markets in the state. In some pockets of California, water is even more costly — hovering around $2,000 an acre-foot in the Westlands region, according to Sarah Woolf, president of Water Wise, a water brokerage and consultancy based in Fresno. Comprising more than 1,000 square miles of farmland in Central Valley, the Westlands is the largest agricultural water district in the US. The soaring prices are a reflection of how quickly California’s water crisis is escalating, with dire implications for food crops that are almost entirely reliant on irrigation. […]