President Donald Trump, within hours of taking office Monday, signed executive orders directing federal agencies to work toward routing more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of California.
Given any water shift puts Northern San Joaquin Valley water supplies in potential jeopardy and the fact 43 percent of the Delta is in San Joaquin County, the executive could order end up having a major ripple effect on regional water supplies and the vitality of the Delta.
The federal government’s skin in the game deciding the fate of the Delta has to do with the fact the federal Central Valley Project in California includes:
*Shasta Dam, the largest reservoir in California that sits below the headwaters of the Sacramento River.
*New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River that not only flows into the Delta but involves 600,000 acre feet of water rights critical to meeting the water needs of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District and Oakdale Irrigation District. It also impacts the cities of Manteca, Lathrop and Tracy water supplies and eventually Ripon.
*The world’s largest off-stream reservoir — San Luis below Pacheco Pass west of Los Banos — that is used to store snow runoff water sent from the Delta until it continues its journey south via the California Aqueduct.
The executive order was dubbed: “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”
It directs “the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of other departments and agencies of the United States as necessary, to immediately restart the work from my first Administration by the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and other agencies to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.”
While it doesn’t say who those “people” are, it is a reference to the Metropolitan Water District that supplies Los Angeles and 25 other Sothern California cities and water districts that are pushing for the Delta Tunnel.
It also involves large corporate farming operations in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley.
Highlights of the executive order are as follows:
*The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply.
In terms of water from the north state, the main reservoirs that store north state water for the LA Basin before it reaches LA reservoirs in the wildfire zone had above average storage.
*Sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed in the LA area.
Regarding vegetation involved and for what an executive order could impact, there are federal environmental review processes for prescribed burns that must be cleared that can take months. if not years, to do so. California environmental laws apply to all other lands.
*Trump’s plan in his first administration would have allowed enormous amounts of water to flow from the snow melt and rainwater in rivers in Northern California to beneficial use in the Central Valley and Southern California.
One of the main reasons that didn’’ happen, as Trump notes in his executive order, was for the protection of the Delta smelt and other species of fish. The water diverted for fish does ultimately flow into the Pacific Ocean.
*Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior shall report to the president regarding the progress made in implementing the policies in this memorandum and provide any recommendations regarding future implementation.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
