Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Archives

Trump OKs More California Water for Valley Farmers. Gavin Newsom Promises to Sue

February 19, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Briannna Calix, and Carmen George

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a preemptive strike against President Donald Trump, said Wednesday he plans to sue Trump’s administration to block a controversial plan to increase water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley.

Newsom’s office said he “will file legal action in the coming days … to protect highly imperiled fish species close to extinction.”

The announcement came just minutes before Trump appeared in Bakersfield to announce he’s finalized an order removing regulatory roadblocks and enabling the giant Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps to deliver additional water to the southern half of the state.

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‘Framework’ Aims to Aid Water Agreements

February 11, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /AgAlert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

In the coming weeks and months, the Newsom administration, water users and conservation groups will continue to refine a framework for potential voluntary agreements intended to benefit salmon and other fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Gov. Gavin Newsom released the framework last week, which acts as the alternative to a state-mandated, flows-only approach that has brought opposition and lawsuits from water agencies and water users.

The framework for voluntary agreements outlines a 15-year program that provides for up to 900,000 acre-feet of new flows to help recover fish populations, creates 60,000 acres of new and restored habitat, and generates $5.2 billion for environmental improvements and science. It would also establish a governance program to deploy flows and habitat, implement a science program and develop strategic plans and annual reports.

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Opinion: Has Newsom Settled Water Wars?

February 10, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Cal Mattersby Dan Walters

The beating heart of California’s massive system of capturing, storing and distributing water is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water flows into the West’s largest estuary from the Sacramento, San Joaquin and several lesser rivers that drain the state’s mountain chains on its northern and eastern edges. While most of the water continues into the Pacific Ocean, giant pumps on the southern edge of the Delta suck much of it into canals supplying San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities as far south as San Diego.

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State Agencies Propose Voluntary Water Agreements

February 10, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Western Farm Press.

California’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection agencies late Thursday shared a framework for potential voluntary agreements to improve river flows and habitat to help recover salmon and other native fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its key watersheds. The framework outlines a 15-year program that would provide substantial new flows for the environment to help recover fish populations, create 60,000 acres of new and restored habitat, and generate more than $5 billion in new funding for environmental improvements and science.

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Opinion: Newsom Can’t Have It Both Ways On California Water

December 24, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Los Angeles Times by Editorial Board

It’s been a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to sue the Trump administration to block stepped-up federal water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to agribusiness and urban areas further south.

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Delta Smelt: The Tiny Fish Caught in California’s War With Trump

December 22, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /The Guardianby Maanvi Singh

On a warm November morning, John Durand squints over the stern of a small research boat, and gestures toward gray-blue water, and the chaotic tangles of tube-like tule reeds.

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Gov. Newsom’s Threat to Sue Trump Upends Peace Talks on California Water Wars

December 19, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

Even before he was sworn into office, Gov. Gavin Newsom threw his weight behind a series of tentative deals, brokered by his predecessor, that were intended to bring lasting peace to California’s never-ending battles over water and endangered fish.

The deals, designed to reallocate water from the state’s major rivers, have yet to be finalized a year later.

Now, one of the nation’s most powerful farm irrigation districts says it will back out of the agreements completely if Newsom follows through with a pledge to sue President Donald Trump over a federal plan to pump more water to farmers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the fragile estuary on Sacramento’s doorstep.

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Opinion: California Rejects Federal Water Proposal, Lays Out its Vision for Protecting Endangered Species and Meeting State Water Needs

November 22, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Wade Crowfoot and Jared Blumenfeld

California’s water policy can be complex, and—let’s be honest—often polarizing.

Water decisions frequently get distilled into unhelpful narratives of fish versus farms, north versus south, or urban versus rural. Climate change-driven droughts and flooding threats, as well as our divided political climate, compound these challenges.

We must rise above these historic conflicts by finding ways to protect our environment and build water security for communities and agriculture. We need to embrace decisions that benefit our entire state. Simply put, we have to become much more innovative, collaborative and adaptive.

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Trump Plan Could Bring Growers More Water. But Will It Harm California’s Rare Salmon?

October 25, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Cal Mattersby Alastair Bland

The Trump administration this week declared that pumping more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to supply farms will not jeopardize the endangered salmon and smelt that live in the estuary. This clears the way for the federal government to deliver more water, possibly as soon as next year.

The decision is a big and controversial step toward providing more water for people and less for fish. But the battle, yet another in a decades-long struggle for California’s water, has only just begun.

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Santa Barbara Water Agencies Say No to State Water Tunnel Project

October 25, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Noozhawkby Giana Magnoli

Local water agencies aren’t buying into the new version of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta “twin tunnels” project, and Santa Barbara County members of the State Water Project voted Thursday to opt out entirely.

The California Department of Water Resources’ Cal Waterfix project, also known as the twin tunnels, aimed to increase State Water Project reliability by building two 40-foot-diameter tunnels to move water under the Delta instead of through it.

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