Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3826 Dec 6-20 | Page 24

22
Dec 6 - 20, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 26
California Intends to
Sue Over Federal Water
Grab - But DWR Plan Will
Increase Water Exports
O
n November 21, the Gavin
Newsom Administration
announced two separate but related
actions that will have a big impact
on protections for Delta smelt,
Sacramento River winter-run
Chinook salmon and other endan-
gered fish species.
First, the California Depart-
ment of Water Resources (DWR)
issued a controversial draft Envi-
ronmental Impact Report on the
long term operations of the State
Water Project (SWP) that actually
increases Delta water exports.
Second, the Newsom Administra-
tion also announced that it intends
to sue the federal government
over the Trump Administration’s
recent biological opinion that
would increase water flows from
federal water projects to corporate
agribusiness interests in the San
Joaquin Valley and away from the
San Francisco Bay-Delta, imper-
iling endangered fish like the Delta
smelt.
The Department of Water
Resources said the first action, the
draft EIR, “enables California’s
water project operations to avoid
relying on proposed federal biolog-
ical opinions announced last month
to achieve environmental approval
to operate consistent with state
law.”
Instead, DWR said it will seek
approval from the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW) to operate the SWP in a
way that supposedly “improves”
protections for fish and complies
with the California Endangered
Species Act (CESA).
“This draft points to a more
sophisticated and nimble way to
manage the State Water Project
to improve our ability to protect
species and operate more flexibly.
This is essential in order to capture
water when it’s available and leave
more water when and where fish
need it,” said DWR Director Karla
A. Nemeth.
Nemeth claims that DWR’s draft
proposal differs from the federal
Biological Opinions in several key
ways:
• “It improves species protection
by vesting authority in CDFW
to stop operational changes if it
determines they will violate CESA
standards.
• It includes multiple alternatives
that provide a block of environ-
mental water that can be used to
offset pumping impacts in the
Delta, with adjustments made over
time as new information is learned.
• It provides clear direction
on when Delta pumping can be
increased during storm events and
caps the amount that exports can
be increased in those events.
• It includes updated modeling
and quantitative analyses to
support habitat actions in summer
and fall to benefit Delta smelt.
• It includes specific protections
for longfin smelt, a protected
species under CESA, and a
commitment to implementing a
longfin smelt science plan.
• It does not seek to increase SWP
exports.”
The state also announced that
it intends to file litigation against
federal agencies to “ensure
adequate protection of endangered
species, shared responsibility of
state and federal water project
operations to protect those species
and to protect the state’s interests.”
“When California has the oppor-
tunity to tackle a longstanding
challenge with innovative, collab-
orative solutions, we take it,” said
Governor Gavin Newsom. “We are
once again marshaling our collec-
tive resources — and building on
our record of strong, science-based
environmental policies — to chart
a new path forward for water
policy in California.”
Brenda Burman, Commissioner
of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,
said the announcement by the State
of California to sue the Trump
administration over the biological
opinion is “disappointing.”
”From the beginning, we’ve been
focused on cooperative solutions
with the State of California to
bring reliable water supplies to
farms, families, communities and
the environment,” said Burman in
a statement. “Today’s announce-
ment by Governor Newsom is
disappointing in his preference to
have judges dictate these important
projects instead of the career
professionals at the federal and
state levels who have developed a
plan based on the best science and
significant input from the public. If
that’s their choice, we’ll see them
in court.”
Fishing and environmental
groups applauded the lawsuit,
but are currently reviewing the
By Dan Bacher
documents of the draft EIR. They
said they have concerns about
how the Delta pumps are to be
operated and how managers will
monitor and know when excessive
pumping is damaging salmon and
other fish species. They are also
very concerned that DWR’s plan
will actually increase exports rather
than reduce them, as is required
to increase salmon and other
imperiled fish populations.
After reviewing the draft EIR,
Kate Poole, Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) attorney,
took issue with DWR’s claim that
the document “does not seek to
increase SWP exports.”
“Their own modeling shows that
it DOES increase both SWP and
CVP exports, by 373,000 acre feet
per year on average (218TAF for
the SWP, 155TAF for the CVP),”
said Poole.
John McManus, President of the
Golden State Salmon Association,
said, “We’re heartened to see the
state announce its challenge to
the Trump/Bernhardt/Westlands
salmon extinction plan. The grab-
all-you-can Trump/Bernhardt/
Westlands approach to seizing
northern California’s waters is so
egregious that the state really had
no choice but to challenge it.”
However, McManus noted that
some of the biggest of the State
Water Project contractors have said
they hoped the state would follow
the lead of the Trump/Bernhardt/
Westlands team and relax environ-
mental protections for them also.
He said further study of the state’s
new proposal for operation of the
State Water Project “will demon-
strate to what degree they may get
what they want.”
“We look forward to further
studying the state’s new State
Water Project proposal, but at first
glance we have concerns about
how the Delta pumps are to be
operated and how managers will
monitor and know when excessive
pumping is damaging salmon
runs,” concluded McManus.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla,
executive director of Restore
the Delta, said she is “happy to
hear that the California Natural
Resources Agency has determined
that operating rules for the Federal
water project are not scientifically
adequate and that the state will
be pursuing litigation against the
Trump administration.”
However, in a tweet she noted, “If
Delta exports are increasing with
the State’s pumping operation plan,
which they are (see page pdf page
665–66), how does this match the
Delta Reform Act’s requirement
of reduced Delta reliance on water
exports?
Regina Chichizola, co-director of
Save California Salmon, pointed
out this is the first time California
has decided to do a separate envi-
ronmental analysis than the federal
government on state and federal
water operations in the Central
Valley.
“It is time for California has to get
serious about protecting our water,”
said Chichizola. “We applaud the
fact that the Governor plans to sue
the Trump administration on the
doctored Biological Opinion for
operations of the Central Valley
federal and state water projects, but
we also need him to understand that
California’s salmon and drinking
water in a state of crisis and to
direct state agencies to take appro-
priate action.”
While she said she hasn’t read the
entire DEIR yet, she explained that
she has “serious concerns” that the
operations are enough to save Cali-
fornia’s salmon or protect water
quality, and the plan could be over-
shadowed by the non-protective
voluntary agreements that Newsom
has held up as an “alternative” to
enforcing state law and state plans
to restore salmon.
It is no surprise that Governor
Newsom received a total of
$755,198 from agribusiness in
2018, based on the latest data from
http://www.followthemoney.org.
That figure includes $579,998 in
the agriculture donations category,
combined with another $116,800
from Beverly Hills agribusi-
ness tycoons Stewart and Lynda
Resnick, owners of the Wonderful
Company and the largest orchard
fruit growers in the world, and
$58,400 from E.J. Gallo.
By vetoing SB 1, supporting
the voluntary water agreements,
backing the Delta Tunnel, hiring
grower William Lyons as a special
“agriculture liaison” to the Gover-
nor’s Office and by releasing a
draft EIR that increases water
exports, Newsom is apparently
bending to the will of his agribusi-
ness donors.