ASSOCIATED PRESSFILE - In this May 1, 2014 photo, irrigation water runs along a dried-up ditch between rice farms in Richvale, Calif. In dry California, water is fetching record high prices. As drought has deepened in the last few months, a handful of special districts in the state's agricultural heartland have made millions through auctions of their private, underground caches that go to the highest bidders. With the unregulated, erratic water market heating up in anticipation of the hot summer months, the price is only going up. In the last five years alone, it has grown tenfold, shooting to as much as $2,200 an acre foot. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, FILE)