California regulators support a controversial plan supported by Governor Gavin Newsom – and opposed by environmental groups – which would give water agencies more latitude in the way they comply with water quality rules.
The approach supported by Newsom is included as part of a water body project for the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta, published Thursday by State Water Resources Control Board.
The plan would give water agencies two potential ways to comply with the objectives of water quality – either a traditional regulatory approach based on the limitation of water withdrawals to maintain certain levels of flow of rivers, or an alternative approach supported by the governor in which the water agencies, the agreements under negotiated, would make certain water flow commitments while contributing to the financing of the habitats wetlands and other measures.
The proposed plan is intended to protect the species of native fish and the ecosystem through water quality standards and flow objectives for the Bay Delta and San Francisco.
The main aquatic agencies have aligned themselves to support these so-called voluntary agreements, that Newsom and its administration presented a solution to break with the traditional and improved regulatory approach the ecological health of the Delta.
Newsom qualified the plan “A testimony to California’s commitment to a collaborative approach and to science to manage our water for the benefit of our communities, our economy and our fauna.”
The proposed plan, drawn up by the staff of the State Agency, will now involve a process of public comments and may be done before the State Water Commission of five members for a decision on adoption. The members of the Council are appointed by the governor.
Environmental and fishing groups, as well as the managers of the Delta communities, argued that the voluntary approach harm the ecosystem and the species of fish from the estuary has undergone spectacular drops.
The delta brings together rivers from a large watershed and flows towards the Bay of San Francisco. On the southern side of the delta, the pumps exploited by the state and federal governments send the water flowing in cities and farms.
Eric Oppenheimer, executive director of the State Water Board, said that the proposed update of the water quality plan “would improve fish and fauna conditions thanks to a combination of flow and housing measures while considering the needs of cities, cities and farms”.
Oppenheimer noted that the State Water Board would follow the commitments of the agencies under voluntary agreements, which were also called the Healthy rivers and landscape program.
Under the plan project, state officials would examine voluntary agreements after eight years to determine whether they should be extended, modified or terminated. The board of directors could decide to return the water agencies to the traditional regulatory approach if they determine that the voluntary agreements have not obtained the desired results.
“We have included the path of the voluntary agreement because we think that the voluntary agreements have merit,” said Oppenheimer to journalists during a briefing. “The basic concept behind these voluntary agreements is that by combining both flow and habitat, we believe that we can obtain significant improvements in ecosystems, and we think it can be done with an impact on lower water supply.”
Oppenheimer said that state officials think that this approach “will generate a high degree of cooperation and accession for water users”.
Environmental and fishing groups have condemned the voluntary agreements proposed by agencies as a back-to-one acquisition against the contributions of the native tribes, Delta communities or conservation defenders. They said that by failing to protect existing flows, the agreements aim to prepare the land for additional massive water.
Newsom and its administration are pressure for the Delta transport project offeredSeeking to build a 45 -thousand water tunnel under the delta, and also advances with plans to build reservoir sites, the first new major reservoir of the State for decades, in a valley north of Sacramento.
Ashley Overhouse, water policy advisor for defenders of environmental groups, said that she was very concerned about the approach of the Council of State.
“This is only the last attempt by the Newsom administration to promote terribly inadequate and inequitable voluntary agreements, undervaluating naked minimum protections,” said Overhouse. “The proposal to cut freshwater flows through the delta during the wet and dry years will be devastating for species and the overall health of the estuary.”
Overhouse and other environmental defenders argue that the voluntary transactions concluded by the main water suppliers would be disastrous for fisheries threatened and threatened, in particular salmon, rainbow trout, green sturgeon, Longfin and Delta. They called for stricter flow requirements to help populations recover.
This year, the populations of the five -year -old salmon were so low that the regulators Stop the commercial fishing season Along the coast for a third consecutive year, although a limited recreational fishing has been authorized.
The State Water Board “seems to collapse under pressure from the governor to approve the voluntarily defective voluntary agreements,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Assn., A non -profit group that represents fishing communities.
Artis said that the voluntary approach would aggravate the environmental crisis in the Delta and prepare the ground for “even more damaging diversions by the huge Delta tunnel”.
His group also criticized the $ 2.9 billion Proposed funding This would be necessary to conclude the agreements, largely of the state and federal funds. The group described it as a “shell game” and a “taxpayer scam”.
Updating Bay-Delta water quality control plan It’s been years. The latest substantial changes in water quality and flow requirements were adopted in 1995 for a large part of the watershed. In 2018, State Water Board published new standards to increase flows in the San Joaquin river.
The pending update will establish rules for the Sacramento river watershed and the rest of the delta.
The State Water Resources Control Board plans to hold a public hearing on the plan project September 8-9, and will accept the comments written until September 10. A decision date of the board of directors has not been set.
The proposal also calls for establishing tribal “beneficial uses” of water in recognition of links between native tribes and fish populations. There are more than 100 tribes in the bay watershed. State officials claim that this designation would not guarantee the tribes of a certain volume of water but would guarantee that cultural uses of water, including for fish species, have protections within the framework of the plan.
Wade Crowfoot, the state secretary of natural resources, said that the approach described as part of the plan “will improve the health of our rivers in restaurants the flows of rivers and revitalize the habitat”.
Newsom noted that he also proposed legislation to create an exemption under California Environmental Quality Act for all these water quality plans. The governor said that “would accelerate the time to make these critical plans by removing the requirements of unnecessary and redundant processes”.
