The state has agreed to pay Antioch $27 million in a settlement that guarantees the city’s 150-year old rights to pump water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for the long term and will help pay for a planned desalination plant.

In return, the city will ditch a provision in a 1968 water rights deal that required the state to reimburse it for one-third of the cost to buy substitute water from the Contra Costa Water District when the Delta water gets too salty, which has been occurred more frequently in recent years.

The Antioch City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the settlement from the lawsuit it filed in 2017 against the California Department of Water Resources.

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