SACRAMENTO, California — A bipartisan group of Central Valley House members urged the Newsom administration Monday to reverse an environmental rule governing operations in the state’s main water hub, arguing it is unnecessarily limiting exports south to farms and communities.
What happened: Democratic Reps. Jim Costa and Adam Gray and Republican Reps. David Valadao and Vince Fong wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom and top water officials in his administration asking them “to reverse an ill-timed decision” to limit water pumping in the sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this month.
Why this matters: Both Newsom and President Donald Trump have sought to export and store more water this year — including by relaxing environmental rules in the Delta and backing new reservoir projects — drawing sharp opposition from environmental and fishing groups worried about collapsing populations of endangered species such as chinook salmon and Delta smelt. Water agencies that depend on state and federal deliveries, however, are pressing for more flexibility as California faces increasingly volatile boom-and-bust weather patterns. The congressional letter escalates that pressure.
Details: The limit, based on a 25-year-old water quality rule called the Port Chicago standard, is meant to keep water flowing out to the ocean — rather than into the federally run Central Valley Project and the state-run State Water Project — to prevent salty ocean water from creeping up the Delta and harming habitat. But the representatives argued that the limit means 600,000 fewer acre-feet of water would be available to Central Valley farmers and communities.
