Reality Check – Lots of Fresh Water Still Being Sent to the Ocean

Despite executive orders from President Trump and Governor Newsom directing state and federal agencies to do all they can to provide fresh water supply to California's people and farms, more than 300,000 acre-feet of fresh water became salt water over the last 60 days as pumps sat idle in the Delta due to outdated and highly dubious environmental regulations. 

The loss in water was split almost equally between the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Both systems, despite having a third good water year, are only committed to delivering 55 and 50 percent respectively of the contracted water to users in the central and southern parts of the state. This reduction is substantially due to the waste of water required by these out of date regulations. 

The health of the environment is important, and if sending extra water to the ocean really helped the ecosystem, then maybe these policies would be defensible. But thirty years of pursuing the policy of sending more and more water to the ocean, particularly in wetter years, has produced very little tangible improvement to the environment in the Delta. 

Now is the time for change. Both the President and the Governor have identified the need and provided direction. That direction needs to be translated into action. This is going to require both the state and federal agencies to work together. The federal Bureau of Reclamation is still without a commissioner which hampers the ability of the federal administration to drive the process. Hopefully, an appointment is made soon, and the right person is put in place to move California water policy in a more positive direction.

Geoff Vanden Heuvel

Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs