The Biden and Newsom administrations will soon adopt new rules for California’s major water supply systems that will determine how much water can be pumped from rivers while protecting endangered fish species.
But California environmental groups, while supporting efforts to rewrite the rules, criticize the proposed changes and warn that the resulting plans will fail to protect fish species found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay are threatened with extinction.
Because the preferential proposal is laid down in a federal framework design environmental analysisthe new rules would “make matters worse,” said Jon Rosenfield, scientific director of the San Francisco Baykeeper group.
“We are deeply concerned that six endangered species in the Bay Delta are on the brink of extinction or heading that way,” Rosenfield said.
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The rules currently under review apply to dams, aqueducts and pumping facilities in California’s two major water systems, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, which supply water to millions of acres of farmland and more than 25 million people. Pumping to supply farms and cities has contributed to the ecological decline of the Delta, where endangered fish species include steel trout, two species of Chinook salmon, longfin smelt, Delta smelt and green sturgeon.
The rewriting of the rules, along with supporting biological opinions, began nearly three years ago after California and environmental groups successfully challenged the Trump administration’s previous rules in court, arguing that 2019 biological opinions were not included. succeeded in providing adequate protection for endangered fish.
Federal and state agencies are now aiming to enact new rules in the coming weeks amid uncertainty over the presidential election, which would likely see new efforts to weaken fish protections in the event of a victory for former President Trump.
“The Biden-Harris administration and the Newsom administration, who said we’re going to do better than the Trump administration’s illegal plan, have actually created a less protective plan that will accelerate the path to extinction for many of these fish species ,” Rosenfield said. “No doubt a Trump administration would try to weaken these protections, but that is not an argument for retaining clearly inadequate protections.”
State officials disagreed, saying their plan for the State Water Project will better protect fish species.
The state Department of Water Resources has been working with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and colleagues at state and federal fishing agencies in recent years to complete a new permit — called an incidental take permit — for the State Water Project, Karla Nemeth said , the director of the department.
Nemeth said DWR’s proposal to operate the system “includes a portfolio of actions designed to reduce impacts on listed species while ensuring water supply reliability in a changing climate.”
That permit for the State Water Project is separate from the upcoming biological advisories for the federally managed Central Valley Project.
Nemeth said state officials are working with federal partners to ensure the rules governing the operation of both systems “are aligned to benefit listed and endangered fish species while continuing to provide water to millions of Californians.”
The development of the new operating rules has involved more than two and a half years of consultation and analysis by a “state and federal multi-agency team, with regular engagement and opportunities for feedback,” said Mary Lee Knecht, a spokesperson of the Bureau of Reclamation. She said the proposal focuses in part on “finding a reasonable balance between competing demands for water, including the needs of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial uses of water.”
The time allotted for updating the rules is coming to an end. For the past three years, federal and state officials have operated the water systems under a court-ordered interim operations plan, which expires in December.
The federal environmental analysis – called a draft environmental impact assessment — includes several alternatives, and environmental groups have urged officials to consider one that they say would provide stronger environmental protections than the Biden administration’s preferred alternative.
Trump has said inside recent campaign speeches that California’s water is “terribly mismanaged” and that he would do the same if elected supply more water for farmers and cities. He has indicated he will again try to weaken environmental protections, lamenting that “a little fish called a smelt sends millions and millions of gallons of water into the Pacific Ocean.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, would likely try to maintain stronger environmental protections.
Read more: How a ‘death trap’ for fish in California’s water system limits stockpiling
Such arguments over water in the Delta have long pitted Central Valley farmers and agricultural water districts against environmental groups, fishing advocates and indigenous tribes.
The California Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural organization, recently raised several concerns about the proposed rules lettersaying the federal analysis ignored the fact that farms are mandated by the state restrictions on pumping groundwater in the coming years.
Alexandra Biering, senior policy attorney for the Farm Bureau, wrote in the letter that agricultural water users have been frustrated by “politically driven regulatory uncertainty” and have been “left in some limbo about the projects’ future operating conditions,” officials said. have done. insisted on rewriting the rules.
“I remain baffled by the fact that this is a political football and that it keeps getting kicked from one side to the other,” Biering said in an interview. “Everyone wants to commit to something before the possibility of a change of administration, which I understand, but I think that inevitably leads to the perception that politics is the driving force behind these decisions.”
That’s a shame, she said, because the same officials have been tasked with reviewing the plans for years under different governments. Biering said she would like to see the process be “a little more insulated from politics.”
Major urban water agencies that rely on the State Water Project have also done their part.
Adán Ortega Jr., board chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said agency leaders would like to see state and federal permits “that have consistent terms.” He said the district, which provides water to 19 million people, supports the inclusion of proposed negotiated agreements Agreements to support healthy rivers and landscapes – in which water agencies have pledged to forego certain amounts of water while funding projects to improve wetland habitats.
These proposed agreements, also called the “voluntary agreements,” have been supported by Governor Gavin Newsom and his administration but have been strongly opposed by environmental groups, who have argued that this approach would lead to reduced flows in the Delta and be harmful to the fishing and biodiversity. ecosystem. Instead, they have called for science-based flow requirements to help fish populations recover.
“The science is very, very clear, and has been for a long time, that these species will continue to decline if there are no additional flows into, through and out of the Delta into San Francisco Bay,” Rosenfield says.
Read more: California’s water agency extends manager’s leave while investigation continues
Another important water policy framework is now being developed by the State Water Resources Control Board, which on Friday released a draft overview of possible options for updating state standards. plan for the management of flows in the Delta. It contains options to include the proposal for voluntary agreements.
The water board has not yet decided which option it will choose in the future updated Bay Delta Plan. Board members will hear comments from the public at a series of meetings in November, December and January.
The board has not yet set a date for the plan’s approval, but is targeting sometime in the summer or fall of 2025, said Eric Oppenheimer, the board’s executive director.
Whatever approach the board ultimately chooses, legal challenges are expected.
Possible lawsuits also loom as the federal government finalizes regulations for operating the Central Valley Project. Environmental groups have said the Biden administration’s preferred plan has been built upon the controversial voluntary agreementsand the analysis failed to properly assess the environmental impacts of two proposed infrastructure projects – Sites Reservoir and the Newsom administration’s plan to create a $20 billion water tunnel – which both groups are fighting against.
A coalition of environmental groups recently raised other concerns lettercondemning the federal government’s proposed rules to eliminate environmental impacts on the Trinity River and its fish. The groups said this “creates an overestimation of the water available for export” and will result in uncertainty and possibly more lawsuits.
“They’re going to make things worse for California’s fish,” said Tom Stokely, water policy adviser for the group California Water Impact Network.
Max Gomberg, a former state water official who Resigned 2022 Due to disagreements with the Newsom administration, he said the proposed rules would “essentially maintain the status quo,” which has harmed the Delta’s ecosystem and fisheries, and “enable ecologically destructive levels of water exports.”
“The only real beneficiaries are a few wealthy Central Valley growers,” said Gomberg, a board member of the California Water Impact Network.
State officials disagreed with claims that the proposed rules would be less protective of the environment.
“We believe the State Water Project’s proposed activities will better protect endangered fish species by integrating new science and addressing the impacts of climate change,” said Ryan Endean, a spokesperson for the Department of Water Resources.
He said the improvements come in part from commitments to restore marsh and floodplain habitats, as well as other efforts to support fish species recovery.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
