The Biden and Newsom administrations will soon adopt new rules for California’s major water systems that will determine how much water can be pumped from rivers while still ensuring protections for imperiled fish species.

But California environmental groups, while supporting efforts to rewrite the rules, criticize the proposed changes and warn that the resulting plans will fail to protect endangered fish species in the River Delta. Sacramento-San Joaquin River and San Francisco Bay.

As the preferred proposal is set forth in a federal decree environmental review projectthe new rules “would make things worse,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director of the San Francisco Baykeeper group.

“We are deeply concerned that six endangered species in the Bay Delta are on the verge of extinction or headed in that direction,” Rosenfield said.

The rules under review govern the dams, aqueducts and pumping plants of California’s two major water systems, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, which supply water to millions of acres of land farmers and more than 25 million people. Pumping to supply farms and towns has contributed to the ecological degradation of the delta, where threatened and endangered fish species include rainbow trout, two types of Chinook salmon, smelt, l delta smelt and green sturgeon.

The rewriting of the rules, complete with supporting biological opinions, began nearly three years ago after California and environmental groups successfully challenged the Trump administration’s previous rules in court, arguing that the 2019 biological opinions had failed to provide adequate protection for endangered fish.

Federal and state agencies now aim to set new rules in the coming weeks amid uncertainty surrounding the presidential election, which, if former President Trump wins, would likely lead to new attempts to weaken the protection of the fish.

“The Biden-Harris administration and the Newsom administration, which said we would do better than the Trump administration’s illegal plan, have actually produced a less protective plan that will accelerate the path to extinction for many these species of fish,” Rosenfield said. “There is no doubt that a Trump administration would seek to weaken these protections, but that is not an argument for locking in grossly inadequate protections. »

State officials disagreed, saying their plan for the State Water Project would better protect fish species.

The state Department of Water Resources has worked in recent years with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its counterparts at state and federal fishing agencies to obtain a new permit – called an incidental take permit – for the proposed d State water department director Karla Nemeth said.

Nemeth said DWR’s proposal for operating the system “includes a portfolio of actions designed to reduce impacts on listed species while ensuring water supply reliability in a changing climate.”

This permit for the State Water Project is separate from upcoming biological advisories for the federally managed Central Valley Project.

Nemeth said state officials are working with federal partners to ensure the rules governing the operation of the two systems “are aligned to benefit listed and threatened fish species while continuing to provide water to millions of Californians.”

Developing the new operating rules required more than two and a half years of consultation and analysis through a “multi-agency state and federal team with regular engagement and feedback opportunities,” said Mary Lee Knecht, spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation. She said the proposal focuses in part on “finding a reasonable balance between competing demands for water, including the needs of fish and wildlife, as well as agricultural, municipal and industrial uses of water.” “.

The time limit for updating the rules is coming to an end. For the past three years, federal and state officials have operated the water systems under a court-ordered interim operating plan, which will expire in December.

The federal environmental review — called draft environmental impact statement — includes several alternatives, and environmental groups have urged officials to consider one that they say would offer stronger environmental protections than the Biden administration’s preferred alternative.

Trump said in recent campaign speeches that water in California is “horribly mismanaged” and that if elected, he would provide more water to farmers and cities. He said he would again seek to weaken environmental protections, lamenting that because of “a little fish called a smelt, they are sending millions and millions of gallons of water into the Pacific Ocean.”

In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris would likely seek to maintain stronger environmental protections.

Such debates over water in the Delta have long pitted Central Valley farmers and agricultural water districts against environmental groups, fishing advocates and indigenous tribes.

The California Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural organization, expressed various concerns about the proposed rules in a recent statement. lettersaying the federal analysis ignored the fact that farms face state-imposed constraints. limitations on groundwater pumping in the years to come.

Alexandra Biering, the Farm Bureau’s chief policy advocate, wrote in the letter that agricultural water users have been frustrated by “policy-driven regulatory uncertainty” and have been “left in a sort of limbo as to what future operational conditions of the projects,” as officials said. pushed to rewrite the rules.

“I continue to be dismayed that this is a political football, and it keeps getting bounced from one side to the other,” Biering said in an interview. “Everyone wants to block something before a possible change in administration, which I understand, but I think it inevitably leads to this perception that politics is the driving force behind these decisions.”

That’s unfortunate, she said, because the same officials have been tasked with revising the plans for years under different administrations. Biering said she would like the process to be “a little more insulated from politics.”

Large urban water agencies under the State Water Project also contributed.

Adán Ortega Jr., board chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said agency leaders would like to see state and federal permits “having consistent conditions for everyone.” He said the district, which provides water to 19 million people, supports the inclusion of the proposed negotiated agreements – called Agreements to support healthy rivers and landscapes — in which water agencies committed to forgoing certain amounts of water while funding projects to improve wetland habitats.

These proposed agreements, also called “voluntary agreements,” were supported by Governor Gavin Newsom and his administration, but strongly opposed by environmental groups, who argued that this approach would lead to reduced flows in the Delta and be detrimental to fish and the environment. ecosystem. Instead, they called for science-based flow requirements to help fish populations recover.

“The science is very, very clear, and has been for a long time, that without additional flows into, through and out of the delta into San Francisco Bay, these species will continue to decline,” Rosenfield said.

Another key water policy framework is being developed by the State Water Resources Control Board, which on Friday released a draft review of potential options for updating the water resources management system of the state. flow management plan in the Delta. It includes options to integrate the proposal for voluntary agreements.

The National Water Board has not yet decided which option it will adopt for the project. Updated Baie-Delta map. Council members will hear public comments during a series of meetings in November, December and January.

The board has not set a date for adopting the plan but is aiming for summer or fall 2025, said Eric Oppenheimer, the board’s executive director.

Whatever approach the board takes, legal challenges are expected.

Potential litigation also looms as the federal government finalizes operating rules for the Central Valley project. Environmental groups said the Biden administration’s preferred plan relies on controversial voluntary agreementsand the analysis failed to properly assess the environmental effects of two proposed infrastructure projects – Site reservoir and the Newsom administration’s plan to build a A $20 billion water tunnel – against which the groups are fighting.

A coalition of environmental groups raised other concerns in a recent lettercondemning the federal government’s proposed rules to exclude environmental impacts on the Trinity River and its fish. The groups said this “creates an overestimate of water available for export” and will lead to uncertainty and potentially more litigation.

“They’re going to make the situation worse for fish in California,” said Tom Stokely, water policy adviser for the group California Water Impact Network.

Max Gomberg, a former state water official who resigned in 2022 due to differences with the Newsom administration, said the proposed rules would “essentially maintain the status quo”, which has harmed the Delta’s ecosystem and fisheries, and would allow “destructive levels of water export for the environment.”

“The only real beneficiaries are a few wealthy producers in the Central Valley,” said Gomberg, a board member of the California Water Impact Network.

State officials disagreed with claims that the proposed rules would be less protective of the environment.

“We believe the State Water Project’s proposed operations will better protect threatened fish species by integrating new science and addressing the impacts of climate change,” said Ryan Endean, a Department of Water Resources spokesperson.

He said the improvements came in part from commitments to restore marsh and floodplain habitats, as well as other efforts to support the recovery of fish species.