The Trump administration sued California’s State Water Resourced Control Board (SWRCB) in federal court in Sacramento on Thursday, escalating a legal war over the fate of the water in the San Joaquin River valley system.
California Republican state legislators showed up to the California Water Commission (CWC) this week to demand that $2.7 billion of Proposition 1 Water Bonds be spent to build new reservoirs.
The California Water Commission appears to have killed all 12 of the above-ground storage reservoirs proposed under the voter-approved, $7.5 billion Proposition 1 water bond of 2014 by estimating they will all cost more than their benefits.
As rain continues in California, officials in San Joaquin County issued evacuation orders after a levee breach, and Turlock Irrigation District officials opened the spillway on the Don Pedro Reservoir for the first time in 20 years.
President-elect Donald Trump has stated his commitment to helping California’s farmers attain more water, as the Golden State prepares to enter its historic sixth year of a crippling drought, with a federal water policy in place that favors fish over agriculture.
A new proposal by the California Water Resources Control Board aims to double the amount of water that flows from the San Joaquin River to the delta and the sea, cutting back on allocations for farms and households to save fish.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) waded into California water politics on Saturday, suggesting at the California Republican Party convention in Burlingame that eating the three-inch Delta Smelt with “cheese and crackers” rather than allowing “out of control environmental policies” to kill California jobs, including those for Hispanic farm workers.
On Friday, California’s top water regulators issued new cutbacks on farmers holding senior water rights dating back more than 100 years.
