Entitled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” Trump’s order calls for reinstating 2019 regulations drafted by his first administration.
At stake are the rules that guide operation of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project, the two systems that deliver water from Northern California rivers to San Joaquin Valley farmers, Southern California residents and other water users in the southern half of the state.
Trump apparently is asking his agencies to override the latest version, years in the making, that the Biden administration, with the support of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, announced in December.
The Biden-Newsom plan is supported by urban water districts and many Central Valley agriculture groups, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the State Water Contractors and the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, which represents farmers.
However, the Westlands Water District — representing a large San Joaquin Valley farming region in parts of Kings and Fresno counties — welcomed the President’s message.
The rules that Biden and Newsom agreed upon in December would actually send more water to Southern California than the Trump rules that they replaced, according to the Bureau of Reclamation’s environmental analysis of the plan.
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>Restore the Delta, an environmental group based in Stockton, challenged Trump’s assertion that river water that completes its seaward journey is a wasted resource. Instead, the group said, it “sustains the largest estuary on the West Coast — a vital resource for California’s economy, recreational and commercial fishing industries, Delta farmers, local businesses and millions of residents who depend on clean, safe water.”
Delta Farmers should be a bigger part of this conversation. River water doesn’t just flow out to sea, it pushes the sea back, making agriculture on the delta possible. As much as you have a fight between central valley farms and fisheries, you have a fight between them and older NorCal farms.