VOL.39 • ISS. 18
overnor Gavin Newsom
on July 28 unveiled a
final version of his controversial
Water Resilience Portfolio, a water
plan that that includes the Delta
Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the
agribusiness-promoted “voluntary
agreements.”
The plan drew praise from
agribusiness interests and water
agencies — and strong criticism
from salmon advocates, Tribal
leaders and environmental justice
leaders for the damage that they
say the tunnel, new reservoir
and voluntary agreements would
could cause to the San Francisco
Bay-Delta Ecosystem, imperiled
salmon and steelhead populations
and West Coast fisheries.
The Governor described the
portfolio as the Administration’s
blueprint for “equipping California
to cope with more extreme droughts
and floods, rising temperatures,
declining fish populations, over-reliance
on groundwater and other
challenges. “
“The portfolio outlines 142 state
actions to help build a climate-resilient
water system in the face of
climate change,” according to a
press release from the Governor’s
Office. “The actions tie directly
to Administration efforts to carry
out recent laws regarding safe and
affordable drinking water, groundwater
sustainability and water-use
efficiency.”
“Water is the lifeblood of our state,
sustaining communities, wildlife
and our economy,” said Governor
Newsom. “For more than a year,
my Administration has worked to
assemble a blueprint to secure this
vital and limited resource into the
future in a way that builds climate
resilience for all communities and
sustains native fish and the habitat
they need to thrive.”
The California Natural Resources
Agency, California Environmental
Protection Agency, and California
Department of Food and Agriculture
claimed they “solicited
extensive public input” to prepare
the portfolio in response to an April
2019 Executive Order (N-10-19).
“The state’s playbook for
managing water in coming decades
must be broad and comprehensive,”
said Secretary for Natural
Resources Wade Crowfoot. “The
portfolio identifies how the state can
help regions maintain and diversify
water supplies, protect and enhance
natural systems and prepare for a
future that looks very different from
our recent past.”
The priorities set forth in the
portfolio include the following:
1. Implementing the Safe and
Affordable Drinking Water Act of
2019
2. Supporting local communities to
successfully implement the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act
of 2014
3. Achieving voluntary agreements
to increase flows and improve
conditions for native fish in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
its watersheds
4. Modernizing the Delta water
conveyance system to protect
long-term functionality of the State
Water Project
5. Updating regulations to expand
water recycling
6. Accelerating permitting of new
smart water storage
7. Expanding seasonal floodplains
for fish and flood benefits
8. Improving conditions at the
Salton Sea
9. Removing dams from the
Klamath River
10. Better leveraging of information
and data to improve water
management
State agencies said they intend to
track and share progress on portfolio
implementation with an annual
report and “stakeholder gathering.”
For more information, visit www.
waterresilience.ca.gov
Michael Quigley, Co-Chair of
Californians for Water Security, a
pro Delta Tunnel group, lauded the
portfolio in a statement.
“The Governor’s Water Resilience
Portfolio establishes a comprehensive
vision for preparing California
for future challenges to our water
supply,” said Quigley. “We strongly
support the Portfolio’s emphasis on
modernizing our aging water distribution
infrastructure by moving
forward with the Governor’s Delta
Conveyance project. It will protect
the water supply for essential
two-thirds of Californians from the
very real risk of earthquakes, more
extreme floods, prolonged droughts
and sea level rise. This project is
needed to protect and enhance our
state’s water security into the future.
We will continue to support the
Administration to push this project
forward.”
However, Regina Chichizola,
the co-director of Save California
Salmon, disagrees strongly with
Gavin Newsom and Wade Crowfoot’s
rosy assessment of the
water portfolio’s promotion of the
Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and
voluntary agreements.
“Governor Newsom is continuing
to sell out our rivers and salmon
to benefit water brokers and large
agricultural corporations,” said
Chichizola. “These are the same
corporations that are polluting our
rivers and drinking water, then
exporting their products.”
“The governor’s talk about social
justice, working with Tribes, and
righting historical wrongs rings a
little hollow right now as hundreds
of Tribal members and multiple
Tribes have protested the water
grabs that he continues to prioritize
with this final Water Portfolio,” she
concluded.
Kathryn Phillips, Director of
Sierra Club California, descried the
water portfolio as a “catalog, not a
plan” and criticized the portfolio for
relying on the Delta Tunnel.
“The much ballyhooed water
portfolio, that the governor originally
promised would identify ways
for regions to become more resilient
to climate change and accompanying
water system uncertainties,
falls well short of its promised
mark,” said Phillips in a statement.
“It is a catalog, not a plan. And it
relies on an expensive boondoggle
of a project--a Delta diversion--left
over from the 1940s, when climate
change wasn’t on most peoples’
radar.”
“While the document acknowledges
the need to preserve natural
ecosystems, the projects and
policies it advances would put those
ecosystems and water quality for
certain communities at risk. If this
was implemented today, we could
count on a rapid decline of water
quality and economic health in the
Stockton region, a stagnation of the
San Francisco Bay, and a heavier
ratepayer burden without improved
water access in Southern California,”
she stated.
“Somehow the state needs to
make a clean break from the same
old, tired ideas of the past that have
drowned its water policy,” said
Phillips.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla,
Executive Director, wasn’t very
impressed by Newsom’s final water
portfolio either. “Same old, same
old. Yawn,” she said in a tweet.
August 21, 2020
Governor
Newsom Releases
Final Water
By Dan Bacher
Portfolio That
Includes Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir
G
25
Bill Jennings, Chairman of the
California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance (CSPA), described
the portfolio as a “trip through
Disneyland.”
”It’s not going to happen,” said
Jennings. “it’s a disaster waiting to
happen. It denies the reality of the
political landscape in California.”
The opposition to Newsom’s Delta
Tunnel and his support for Sites
Reservoir and the voluntary agreements
runs far and wide, including
Tribal leaders, recreational and
commercial fishing groups, Delta
residents and businesses, environmental
justice advocates, Southern
California water ratepayers and
elected officials.
On March 2, over 200 people,
including members of at least seven
California Indian Tribal nations,
along with some recreational anglers
and environmentalists, marched on
the meeting room of the Sheraton
Inn in Redding on the evening of
March 2, shouting “Shut It Down”
and “No Water for Profits,” in
strident opposition to the Governor’s
Delta Tunnel project.
After marching into the room, they
testified before the Department of
Water Resources staff about damage
that would be caused to their livelihoods
and culture if the Delta
Tunnel is constructed. The meeting
only took place under pressure from
the Hoopa High Water Protectors
Club and their allies, who demanded
at the first scoping meeting on
February 3 that a meeting be held in
the north state.
There were so many speakers
that the DWR moderators, under
pressure from all of people who
had traveled there, finally decided
to hold the comment period a half
hour longer than originally planned.
Not one person who showed up
indicated support for the Delta
Tunnel.
Annelia Hillman of Orleans, Yurok
Tribal Member and artist, set the
tone for the evening when she got
the crowd chanting “Shut it Down!”
during the rally. Hillman said it’s
time for disruption, pointing out that
this disruption should take place in
two ways — the personal and the
systemic.
“Get angry. It’s time to fight — we
don’t have time left. The destruction
needs to stop. It will affect
the Klamath — and we won’t let it
happen. Shut it down!’ she said.