Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Has Newsom Settled the Water Wars?
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 5 years ago on
February 9, 2020

Share

The beating heart of California’s massive system of capturing, storing and distributing water is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Water flows into the West’s largest estuary from the Sacramento, San Joaquin and several lesser rivers that drain the state’s mountain chains on its northern and eastern edges.


Dan Walters
Opinion
While most of the water continues into the Pacific Ocean, giant pumps on the southern edge of the Delta suck much of it into canals supplying San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities as far south as San Diego.
Accordingly, the Delta is also the center of more than a half-century of often bitter political, legal and financial conflict, generally pitting environmental groups who want to curb Delta diversions against farmers who use most of the Delta’s water, with municipal water interests more or less caught in the middle.
During his first governorship four-plus decades ago, Jerry Brown tried to build a “peripheral canal” that would have carried Sacramento River water around the Delta. He got it through the Legislature, only to see it defeated in a referendum.

A Premature Declaration of Victory

In the 1990s, Bruce Babbitt, the former Democratic governor of Arizona who had become interior secretary in the Clinton administration, attempted to mediate the conflicts with Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s blessing, and seemed to succeed. “Peace has broken out amid the water wars,” Wilson said at the time.
It was a premature declaration of victory and Wilson’s successor, a notoriously risk-averse Democrat, Gray Davis, stood aside as the conflict continued to simmer, mostly in federal courts.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to revive the peripheral canal as twin tunnels beneath the Delta, which Brown, in his second governorship, enthusiastically embraced.
Brown also brought back Babbitt as a mediator and bequeathed to successor Gavin Newsom the beginnings of a peace process through “voluntary agreements.” Newsom continued to pursue it, even vetoing a bill, Senate Bill 1, that would have locked Obama administration environmental rules into state law after water interests and Sen. Dianne Feinstein warned that it would torpedo the negotiations.
Last week, Newsom unveiled a compromise framework that would enhance flows through the Delta by up to 900,000 acre-feet a year and restore 60,000 acres of habitat for wildlife, particularly salmon, facing decline or even extinction due to the diversions.
“Today, my administration is proposing a path forward, one that will move past the old water binaries and set us up for a secure and prosperous water future,” Newsom wrote in CalMatters.

Photo of an aerial view of the Sacramento
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California (Shutterstock)

Why Might Newsom Succeed Where Others Have Failed?

The framework is just that. Many details remain to be nailed down, and it also would need the approval of various state and federal agencies. But it’s progress.

“Inaction, recalcitrance, and adherence to the status-quo puts our water future at risk. The alternative to the voluntary agreements is a contentious regulatory process that will take many years and require adjudicating a thicket of litigation in every direction before restoring river flows.” Gov. Gavin Newsom 
So why might Newsom succeed where others have failed?
One factor is that farmers have seen their political clout wane in an increasingly blue state. They also face threats by the State Water Resources Control Board to order permanent cuts in agricultural water and the newly enacted regulation of groundwater that lessens their ability to tap underground aquifers during droughts.
Newsom’s shrinkage of the twin Delta tunnels to a single tunnel also plays a role, along with progress on a large new reservoir, called Sites, on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. It’s intended to capture more runoff on the assumption that climate change will lessen the mountain snowpacks that feed water into the Delta.
“Inaction, recalcitrance, and adherence to the status-quo puts our water future at risk,” Newsom wrote. “The alternative to the voluntary agreements is a contentious regulatory process that will take many years and require adjudicating a thicket of litigation in every direction before restoring river flows.”
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
[activecampaign form=31]

DON'T MISS

Wired Wednesday: CEMEX’s New Mining Plan for the San Joaquin River

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires NSC Officials a Day After Far-Right Activist Raises Concerns to Him

DON'T MISS

China Halts Approvals for New US Investment Projects

DON'T MISS

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

DON'T MISS

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

DON'T MISS

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

DON'T MISS

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

DON'T MISS

Politics Turns Ugly for a Conservative Running for Fresno State Student Body President

UP NEXT

Why Project Labor Agreements Are Good for Our Schools and Students: Opinion

UP NEXT

State Center Trustees Vote for Special Interest Giveaway Over Students: Opinion

UP NEXT

I Will Force Votes on Blocking Arms Sales to Israel: Sen. Bernie Sanders

UP NEXT

What Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Could Mean for Americans: Fareed Zakaria

UP NEXT

Why the Nation Would Be Wise to Support a Third Term Amendment for Donald Trump

UP NEXT

If California Bails Out LA’s $1 Billion Budget Deficit, Beware the Slippery Slope

UP NEXT

Trump Has Had Enough. He Is Not Alone.

UP NEXT

The Real Crisis in California Schools Is Low Achievement, Not Cultural Conflicts

UP NEXT

Trump and Musk Are Suffering From Soros Derangement Syndrome

UP NEXT

CA Politicians Have an Irritating Habit of Ignoring the Downsides

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

12 hours ago

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

12 hours ago

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

12 hours ago

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

13 hours ago

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

15 hours ago

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

15 hours ago

Politics Turns Ugly for a Conservative Running for Fresno State Student Body President

15 hours ago

Pentagon’s Watchdog to Review Hegseth’s Use of Signal App to Convey Plans for Houthi Strike

15 hours ago

President Trump’s Tariffs Could Be the Political Tipping Point

17 hours ago

Order That Kept Water in the Kern River Reversed by 5th District Court of Appeal

17 hours ago

Wired Wednesday: CEMEX’s New Mining Plan for the San Joaquin River

GV Wire’s Edward Smith talks with KMPH Fox 26 “Great Day” anchor Christina Rodriguez about the possibility of CEMEX digging a 600-foot hole ...

11 hours ago

11 hours ago

Wired Wednesday: CEMEX’s New Mining Plan for the San Joaquin River

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
11 hours ago

Trump Fires NSC Officials a Day After Far-Right Activist Raises Concerns to Him

12 hours ago

China Halts Approvals for New US Investment Projects

12 hours ago

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

12 hours ago

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

12 hours ago

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, seated right, gives a thumbs-up alongside his wife Lisa Oz, seated left, with friends and family after he testified at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP/Ben Curtis)
13 hours ago

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

15 hours ago

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend