Over 350,000 acre-feet of stored northern California surface water is at stake in a decision that will be made by state and federal water and environmental agencies this next week. The City of San Diego uses 175,000 acre-feet of water per year, so 350,000 acre-feet is twice the annual water consumption of a major California city. The issue is a regulation designed to help the endangered delta smelt in the operating plans that govern the export of surface water to southern and central California. That regulation is called the Fall X2 requirement. This is a regulation that requires extra surface water to be released to the ocean in the Fall (September and October) in wet and above normal years for the purpose of helping the delta smelt. Multiple scientific studies released in the past year have demonstrated that extra releases of water to the ocean in the Fall have no positive impact on the delta smelt. In other words, there is zero scientific evidence that this release of valuable surface water helps the delta smelt at all.
One of the principles governing delta regulations is that while species protection is a top priority, the operators of the system do have the authority to adapt and modify their actions in light of new information and data. This week, the public water agencies who are negatively impacted by the Fall X2 regulation, sent a letter to the regulators requesting a suspension of this regulation and its over 350,000 acre-feet in lost supply. You can read that letter here. In addition, the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley, which represents a broad cross-section of the Central Valley stakeholders, including community groups, cities, counties, farm commodity groups, businesses, GSAs and water agencies, together with the Southern California Water Coalition, which represents similar constituencies in the eight county Southern California area, sent a letter to Governor Newsom and Secretary of the Interior Haaland also requesting a temporary suspension of the Fall X2 regulation. You can that letter read here.
What we have here is really a test of whether the millions of Californians who depend on the surface water supplies provided by the State and Federal water systems can believe that the often-promoted idea of adaptive management – the idea that science – matters. Will the regulators recognize scientific reality and modify their planned behavior in light of new facts?
The stakes here are huge. The 2024 water year was rated as an above normal precipitation year and yet the Central Valley project is only delivering a 50% water supply, and the State Water Project is only delivering a 40% water supply. We have had two good water years in a row. It is highly likely that there will be a dry year or two or three coming up soon. There is a lot of talk about the value of democracy in America. The governor is elected to represent all of us. In the wet year of 2023, Governor Newsom issued very favorable executive orders that allowed enormous amounts of flood waters to be recharged into the groundwater basins. We are hoping he again uses his authority this coming week to stop the useless waste of a huge amount of fresh water to the ocean.
You might think about adding your voice to this request. The governor’s office can be contacted here.
Geoff Vanden Heuvel
Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs
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