The Biden administration has adopted new rules for the operation of California’s major water system in the Central Valley, balancing ensuring the protection of imperiled fish species with providing reliable water to farms and cities. Supported the plan, which was supported by state authorities.
Federal and state officials say new operating rules for the Central Valley Project and state water projects developed over the past three years will provide greater stability to the state’s supply in the face of worsening droughts exacerbated by climate change. He said it would bring about.
“The updated rules represent a new path forward that provides more certainty for water users, fish and wildlife,” said Carl Stock, regional director of the Federal Bureau of Reclamation. “A durable plan that incorporates a great deal of flexibility.” ”
Officials from several federal and state agencies have developed revised plans after the state of California and environmental groups successfully sued to challenge previous rules adopted during President Trump’s first term. . The new framework replaces court-ordered interim plans adopted over the past three years, but California’s long-running dispute over water management is far from resolved.
Environmental and fishing groups said the new rules fail to adequately protect endangered fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The agricultural water district also raised other criticisms. And President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to provide more water to farms and cities, is widely expected to once again seek to overhaul California’s water management.
Greg Gartrell, former Contra Costa Water District administrator, said the new plan “helps lock things in place” for the time being. “If the new administration wants to change that, it will have to go through an extensive process to make it happen, and that will take several years.”
Gartrell said new lawsuits are also likely.
Some initial legal challenges have already begun. Last month, a group of agricultural water districts sued the state agency, challenging the approval of state water project rules and related permits for the “incidental take” of endangered species caused by pumping facilities. Westlands Water District, the Central Valley’s largest provider, said there are unanswered questions about how to coordinate operations of the state and federally managed system.
Westlands general manager Alison Febo said she was “disappointed by the truncated and incomplete process” that led to the rulemaking. He said the process was moved on a “rushed schedule” and failed to address “serious issues raised by key stakeholders.”
Water from the Delta is pumped to cities across Southern California, and the region’s largest supplier supported the plan. Deven Upadhyay, interim general manager of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District, said it would provide critical “regulatory stability” for water management.
Federal officials defended the process, saying it met legal requirements, held numerous meetings and received extensive input. The plan is based on “true collaboration, dialogue and science,” said Jennifer Quan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries regional manager.
The rule went into effect last week after the federal Bureau of Reclamation approved a plan and supporting biological opinion to determine how pumping and river flow will be managed in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The rules govern the operation of dams, aqueducts and pumping stations in the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, the world’s largest water systems that serve Central Valley farmland and about 30 million people.
The withdrawal of water by the giant pumps that feed the system is contributing to ecosystem degradation in Delta Bay and San Francisco Bay, where steelhead trout, two species of Chinook salmon, longfin smelt, delta smelt, It is home to endangered fish species such as the green sturgeon.
Federal officials say the changes under the new rule include provisions to control the release of cold water reservoirs from Shasta Dam to help support the survival of endangered winter Chinook salmon. Other provisions focus on “adaptive management” approaches that allow managers to incorporate new scientific knowledge.
Shasta Dam, part of the Central Valley Project, rises above the Sacramento River near Redding.
(Max Whitaker/For the Times)
Deciding how to manage these water systems is “one of the most difficult natural resource issues west of the Mississippi River,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton “Chuck.” ” said Bonham. He said the operations of the two systems had been separated in recent years and “forced into conflict” but were now working closely together under rules.
“Chaos hurts,” Bonham said. “Avoiding disruption, coordinating and moving forward together in the face of a hotter, drier future are the benefits of doing these operating rules the way we have.”
He said he still expected some “screams and cries” over the plan, but said the process had been thorough and not rushed.
“The reality is this is not political,” he said, describing the plan as an effort to “find the right balance” that is “good for both people and the environment.”
State and federal officials who announced the new rules Friday said one of their key goals is to make the management framework more flexible to adapt to climate change. Paul Sousa, regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pointed to recent scientific findings that suggest the past 25 years have been the driest quarter in 1,200 years in the Western United States, and that global warming is making droughts more severe. He pointed out that it is becoming more commonplace.
“We know that our fishing industry is in serious decline,” Souza said. “So it’s really important to think about how we manage the resources we love in a hotter, drier climate, and this is a step forward.”
Souza said the “adaptive management” clause would bring additional flexibility to operations, allowing managers to decide, based on the latest science, whether fish populations would benefit from, for example, releasing “water pulses.” He said it would be like this. He and other officials also proposed a negotiated agreement that would commit water agencies to withhold certain amounts of water while funding projects that improve wetland habitat to help fish species and ecosystems. He also emphasized the inclusion of
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is pushing ahead with plans to build a proposed $20 billion water tunnel in the Seitz Reservoir and Delta region, calls the new framework an important step toward improving management and making the state’s water system more resilient. praised as.
“We know what the future holds for this state: hotter heat and drier aridity,” Newsom said. “That means we must do everything we can now to prepare and ensure our water infrastructure is able to handle these extreme conditions.”
But environmentalists said protections for endangered fish species were insufficient.
“While these rules are somewhat better for the environment than current practices, they are not sufficient to meet legal obligations, much less to enable species and ecosystem recovery,” the wildlife conservation group said. said Water Policy Advisor Ashley Oberhaus.
John Rosenfield, scientific director of the San Francisco Baykeeper organization, said federal regulations have failed to improve the status of seven fish species that are rapidly declining toward extinction. He said he expected the Trump administration to seek to further weaken “this very weak set of protections.”
Environmental groups are also calling for the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt strong regulatory standards as it considers options for updating water flow management plans in the Delta.
President Trump says California’s water is “grossly mismanaged,” laments that “millions of gallons of water are flowing into the Pacific Ocean because of a tiny fish called a smelt,” and wants to weaken protections. It shows intention.
These debates over Delta water have long pitted California farmers and agricultural water districts against environmental groups, fisheries advocates, and Native American tribes.
California’s coastal fisheries rely heavily on catching Chinook salmon, which migrate upstream in the fall. But authorities have closed the salmon fishing season for the past two years as years of severe drought have decimated fish populations.
Fisheries officials have criticized water managers’ decisions, saying they have deprived the river of the cool flow salmon need to survive.
Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, said the Bureau of Reclamation’s actions have had a devastating impact on salmon in recent years. The new plan includes “some modest improvements,” he said, but “it’s not enough.”
