For Immediate Release
November 21, 2019
Contact: Kathryn Phillips 916-893-8494 (mobile)
Delta Ecosystem Remains at Risk with Latest State Proposal; Governor’s Plan to Sue Trump Again Justified
SACRAMENTO—Today the Newsom administration released the Department of Water Resources draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) governing water flows from the State Water Project through the San Francisco Bay-Delta. That EIR essentially governs how much water will be drawn from the Delta during different times of the year and shipped south.
Additionally, the Newsom administration announced that it will be challenging the Trump administration’s radical biological opinion released in October that indicated that substantially more water could be taken from the Delta water system without harming fish and wildlife. An earlier version of that opinion was scuttled by U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt this summer when federal scientists determined that taking more water would harm fish and wildlife.
The Newsom administration also, once again, touted its engagement in voluntary agreement talks between water contractors and the state about appropriate flow levels for rivers running into the Delta. Earlier this year, Newsom demanded that his administration work on securing voluntary agreements instead of rapid implementation of state regulations.
Statement by Kathryn Phillips, Director of Sierra Club California:
"The Department of Water Resources’ Environmental Impact Statement is hundreds of pages long and will require a thorough reading. However, at first glance, it appears to be weaker in its protections for the Delta ecosystem—including salmon and smelt—than we had hoped to see and than previous operations have provided in recent years. So we will be reading it carefully and commenting in detail later.
"We appreciate that the Newsom administration is going to challenge the Trump administration’s ridiculously dishonest biological opinion. That opinion is nothing more than an extinction plan. Bernhardt and Trump created that extinction plan by transferring honest scientists off the job. Suing the Trump administration is the right thing to do.
"Everything we hear and see about the voluntary agreement talks suggests that the water contractors are pushing for water flow policies that won't protect the environment or the communities living in the Delta who deserve clean, safe water. My big worry is that while the talk-talk proceeds, the state is wasting time that ought to be spent writing and workshopping the regulatory language that will make sure the rivers that flow into the Delta aren't drained before they get to the Delta."
Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 Sierra Club chapters in California, representing more than 500,000 members and supporters statewide.