Many would be left behind in Governor Newsom’s voluntary water agreements
It’s understandable that state Senator Anna Caballero wants to feel “great hope and guarded optimism” for Governor Newsom’s voluntary agreements (“California governor’s water negotiations leave no one behind,” Page 6A, Feb. 24). Everyone working on California water wants meaningful solutions. Unfortunately, too many are left behind in these deals and we have seen no evidence of “solutions that can benefit everyone.”
Environmental justice communities of Stockton and the Bay-Delta have not been considered in the voluntary agreements plan, or in the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint. During the last year, the Delta community worked with the Newsom administration on environmental protections for the region. We have tracked the Trump water plan for the Delta and spoke out when President Trump’s directives (carried out by Interior Secretary Bernhardt on behalf of Westlands Water District) have weakened protections for Delta water quality, environmental justice communities, and fisheries.
We created a comprehensive analysis of the flood threat to the Delta and made recommendations to the Newsom administration about next steps for dealing with climate change impacts manifesting in the Delta. Part included documenting harmful algal blooms and connecting this water quality challenge to air quality and other public health problems. We also helped convene local partners to work on an environmental justice initiative with CalEPA for Stockton.
Disregarding contributions by Delta advocates, the Newsom administration is now offering “voluntary agreements” with inadequate Delta flows for fisheries and healthy waterways. Governor Newsom now champions a revision of state policies aimed at greater Delta water exports than what science deems as protective for the region, let alone restorative.
Thankfully, on Feb. 20, Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit against the junk science of the Trump Delta biological opinion. We thank Newsom for keeping his word to sue the Trump administration and protect the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary from Trump’s water grab. Bay-Delta advocates pushed Newsom hard to file the suit because we believe the estuary, and the people who live there, are worth saving.
The Newsom administration claims great pride in working with Delta communities but often slides into the old ways of the Brown and Schwarzenegger administrations. They are not taking action on Delta recommendations made by community water leaders — like completing a solid water inventory before moving forward with planning a tunnel, creating a loading order for regional water projects and then determining if a tunnel is needed and at what size. They do not have a plan for increasing flows through the Bay-Delta to restore water quality and protect species as the best available science recommends.
Newsom recently claimed that water deliveries protect jobs in the San Joaquin Valley, even though industrial agriculture has never lifted a San Joaquin Valley community from poverty, and available jobs continue to decrease with agricultural mechanization.
A recent economic analysis by hired gun David Sunding for the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint discusses water needs of the Valley. The report forgets to discuss the water needs of Stockton, which is part of the Valley and contains California’s largest environmental justice community percentage-wise. Economic impacts to Stockton of extreme pollution from water management policies are never acknowledged.
Newsom is pushing forward in support of the Valley Blueprint with a voluntary agreement that will bring State Water Project operations in alignment with a bad federal standard. His administration is wrapping the effort in a feel-good green bow and rhetoric of concern for environmental justice communities — just not those in the Delta. He will have participating parties in the room for negotiations without having impacted parties from the Delta.
To end the old binaries, the Delta must be protected while improving regional water supplies. That means protection of water quality for Delta people. Equity means representation and care for all impacted parties.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.