State and federal officials, together with water agencies, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide additional water flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta watershed by paying farmers not to plant some crops.
The result would provide a potential extra 824,000 acre-feet (an acre-foot is 325,851 gallons) of water flow.
The eight year, $2.6 billion agreement would be funded by the parties participating in the MOU and provide new flows for the watershed to help salmon and other native fish recover and create new and restored habitats for fish and wildlife.
Habitat creation would range from targeted improvements in tributaries to large landscape-level restorations in the Sacramento Valley. Improvements include creating spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and smelt, completing high-priority fish screen projects, restoring and reactivating flood plains, and making fish passage improvements.
A new state multidisciplinary restoration unit would be created to accelerate permitting and implementation of habitat projects. Annual reports on whether commitments by voluntary agreement parties are being met would also be completed.
In the eighth year, state water quality regulators would determine if the voluntary agreements are achieving objectives and whether they should be continued, modified or ended.
“We don’t have to choose between healthy ecosystems or a healthy economy; we can choose a path that provides for both,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said. “This is a meaningful, hard-earned step in the right direction. I am thankful to our partners on this historic agreement and look forward to continued collaboration as we adapt for the future.”
According to Karla Nemeth, California Department of Water Resources director, as part of the voluntary agreements, farmers would be paid to fallow approximately 35,000 acres of Sacramento Valley rice fields—about 6 percent of the valley’s 550,000 acres of rice fields.
In a statement, California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson said they appreciate the parties working together on a collaborative agreement but encourage a commitment to finding collaborative solutions “to ensure healthy ecosystems and a healthy economy for those farming communities.”
“We call for additional negotiations and continued refinements to reach a truly comprehensive solution,” Johansson said. “Our farmers and ranchers need alternatives to flow-centric Bay-Delta policies that still fall short in safeguarding our environment and protecting California’s economy, including the critical contributions of agriculture.”
The voluntary agreement was signed by some of the state’s biggest water users that get their water from the rivers and tributaries that feed the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta watershed. They include not only the district that supplies water to rice farmers, but the city of Sacramento and its suburbs; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in Los Angeles; the Westlands Water District, the largest farm water agency in the San Joaquin Valley; and the Kern County Water Agency.
However, the agreement left out other stakeholders, including the water districts serving the cities of Modesto and Turlock, the surrounding farming community and the city of San Francisco. Despite their objections to the agreement, the agencies said they are in negotiations with the state.
Environmentalists objected to the agreement, stating they and Tribes were left out of the negotiations, and the MOU does not go far enough to save imperiled species.
Regina Chichizola, executive director of Save California Salmon, said the MOU provides only half of the needs for water quality and salmon.
Doug Obegi, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, concurred and was skeptical that a voluntary agreement would solve the state’s water wars, saying, “How do you bring peace to a process when you exclude from the room” environmentalists and Tribes?
Restore the Delta said in a statement the voluntary agreement “violates the legal principles of environmental justice inclusion and does not serve the public trust or the human right to water. Governor Newsom continues to serve the interests of the top 2 percent of agribusiness across California at the expense of Northern California Tribes, Delta communities, commercial fishing interests and communities in need of improved drinking water conditions.”
The voluntary agreement is a breakthrough after negotiations have been ongoing since 2016 to solve water issues in the Delta.
“The governor said kind of day one to us as a team, ‘We need a different way of thinking about water in our state. We just have to end this crazy management by litigation. We have to end the water wars,’” said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “This is a really huge, big step in moving the system.”
The agreement must go through a regulatory review process before becoming official. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
