As the three latest fish surveys on the Delta reveal that the Delta smelt is virtually extinct in the wild, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced an initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation of 0 percent for state water contractors in 2022, with the exception of certain health and safety needs.
DWR also announced several steps to “manage the state’s water supply” in anticipation of a third dry year with reservoirs at or near historic lows, including the submission by DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation of a new Temporary Urgency Change Petition (TUCP) to the State Water Resources Control Board that suspends Delta water quality standards and delaying the removal of the Emergency Drought Salinity Barrier in the Delta.
The announcement comes after record rainfall drenched areas of Northern California during the historic “bomb cyclone” on October 24-25,” followed by over a month of little or no rain, depending on the region.
The announcement also comes after Food & Water Watch and dozens of other environmental, public health and justice advocacy organizations sent a letter to Governor Newsom urging him to “end corporate abuse of water from industrial factory farms, fossil fuels and bottled water companies.”
“Given the unprecedented drought conditions, the SWP’s initial allocation for December 1 will focus on the health and safety needs for 2022 of the 29 water agencies that contract to receive SWP supplies,” according to DWR. “DWR has advised these water agencies to expect an initial allocation that prioritizes health and safety water needs and that the SWP will not be planning water deliveries through its typical allocation process until the state has a clearer picture of the hydrologic and reservoir conditions going into the spring.”
DWR said it focused on prioritizing water supply in four categories: “water for health and safety needs and Delta salinity control; water for endangered species; water to reserve in storage; and water for additional supply allocations if the hydrology allows.”
“Despite a wet start to the water year, conditions have dried out since that first storm and we are still planning for a below-average water year. That means we need to prepare now for a dry winter and severe drought conditions to continue through 2022,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “We will be working with our federal partners and SWP contractors to take a conservative planning approach to balance limited water supplies with the needs of residents, businesses, and the environment.”
“It is going to take a multi-pronged approach to successfully respond to these unprecedented drought conditions,” claimed Nemeth.
Food and Water Watch: Water Allocation System Must Be Revisited
In response to the water allocation announcement, Food & Water Watch California Director Alexandra Nagy said in a statement, “The Newsom administration’s announcement serves as a potent reminder of how dire this drought is and the need for immediate action to preserve the water we have for the people who need it most.”
”Conservation measures are necessary, but so is a reevaluation of our water allocation system. Instead of mining our already scarce groundwater, we must accelerate groundwater sustainability plans and cut off water supplies to chronic corporate abusers like fossil fuel interests, industrial agriculture and bottled water companies. The freshwater used by the oil and gas industry alone could provide billions of gallons of water to homes in need. Water is a human right. It’s time California acted like it,” she said.
She noted that new research compiled by Food & Water Watch around the state’s biggest water abusers reveals the oil and gas industry used more than 3 billion gallons of freshwater between January 2018 and March 2021 that could otherwise have supplied domestic systems.
Likewise, she said 80 percent of the state’s water goes to agribusiness, including heavy water users like almonds. In 2019, more than 60 percent of almonds produced in California were exported, rerouting 910 billion gallons of water out of the state for corporate profit.
“Additionally, alfalfa uses a huge share of California’s agricultural water at 16 percent and occupies 1 million irrigated acres in the state. More than 1.5 trillion gallons of water are needed for alfalfa irrigation or more than enough water to provide the daily recommended water needs (55 gallons per person per day) for every Californian for over a year,” she said.
Groundwater accounts for 30 percent of water used by California agriculture in wet years, and in dry years groundwater accounts for “a staggering 80 percent,” according to the report.
Restore the Delta: DWR and Reclamation seek to do away with Delta water quality standards
Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, slammed DWR and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) for “seeking once again to do away with Delta water quality standards and planning to leave in place a major saltwater barrier that will hamper fish migration.”
She noted that DWR and BuRec have submitted a new Temporary Urgency Change Petition (TUCP) to the State Water Resources Control Board that suspends Delta water quality standards. DWR is also delaying the removal of the Emergency Drought Salinity Barrier in the Delta.
“The rock barrier across West False River was scheduled to be removed by November 30. However, DWR will now leave the barrier in place and create a notch in the barrier in January 2022 to allow for fish passage and boat traffic until April 2022,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
“It is beginning to feel as if the Newsom Administration's Department of Water Resources should mark out the Delta with a big red X and be done with it. Clearly, they have no interest in saving the estuary or protecting water quality conditions for the 4 million people who live in the region,” she stated.
“While Governor Newsom and DWR cannot make it rain, Californians still need real water solutions for a climate that has already changed,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “Their solution so far? Persist with the Delta tunnel folly and cut deals with huge irrigation districts even though industrial ag contributes only 2-3% to the state's gross domestic product. Meanwhile, this plan harms Delta communities, rivers, fisheries, tribes, and "second" cities like Stockton. Those backroom voluntary agreements are all about filling a Delta tunnel with plenty of water for big ag and speculative development. Meanwhile, Delta water quality protections are suspended.
“At a recent meeting at Metropolitan Water District, California Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot misrepresented the plight of farmworkers during the 2014-15 drought claiming 1.5 million layoffs. Documentation from Dr. Jeff Michael during that time shows that farm worker jobs actually increased, as did pay. Acreage and yields for almonds have also expanded every year, including last year. But Crowfoot continues with the false narrative to justify water giveaways to big ag. Never mind the Delta ag economy and other economies tied to the Delta.
“The Newsom Administration claims to care about drinking water community needs, yet the growers, who have pumped their groundwater supplies dry, who have polluted San Joaquin Valley drinking water wells, demand more and more water from the Delta for their almond trees. Figuring out how to manage our limited water supply for climate change should be one of the top priorities for this administration -- before building a tunnel to serve big water interests.
“For 2022, they will gut water quality standards in the Delta to feed the beast, special interest control of California water and the political donor class. The Newsom Administration manages the system for venture capital almonds and the Metropolitan Water District -- not the people, the Delta, or California’s public trust resources.”
Fishery Biologist: Delta Smelt are “likely virtually extinct in the wild”
For the past three years, no Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have been found in California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Fall Midwater Trawl survey.
None have been found in the first two months of the four-month survey this year either: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2021/11/11/2063796/-Countdown-to-Extinction-Zero-Delta-Smelt-Found-in-October-Midwater-Trawl-Survey-for-Fourth-Year
On November 14, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) fishery biologist Tom Cannon in his California Fisheries Blog reported that two other surveys on the Delta have turned up similar results for the Delta smelt: calsport.org/...
“The Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) caught only 1 Delta smelt in 2200 smelt-targeted net tows in 2021,” wrote Cannon. “This compares to 49 captured in 2020 and hundreds in prior years. None were captured in the Spring Kodiak Trawl 2021 survey (Figure 1). This year’s results indicate that Delta smelt are likely virtually extinct in the wild.”
The virtual extinction of Delta smelt in the wild is part of a greater ecosystem crash caused by massive water exports to corporate agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley, combined with toxics, declining water quality and invasive species in the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.
The pro-agribusiness policies that have resulted in the demise of Delta smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon and other fish species are the result of deep regulatory capture of the Governor’s Office, California Legislature and regulatory agencies and commissions by San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness interests like the Resnicks, owners of the Wonderful Company, and the Westlands Water District.
For example, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, billionaire agribusiness tycoons and major promoters of the Delta Tunnel and increased water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have donated a total of $366,800 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to the campaign to fight the Governor’s recall.
These latest donations are not the only donations given to Newsom’s campaigns by the Resnicks since 2018. Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.
Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95 percent, respectively, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).
“Taken as five-year averages, the declines for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad are 98.1, 99.8, 99.8, 26.2, 99.3 and 94.3 percent, respectively,” said Jennings.
The diversion and export of water for Central Valley agribusiness interests during a drought has also had a huge impact on imperiled Sacramento River salmon populations, just as it has had on driving the Delta smelt to become virtually extinct in the wild.
Not only did nearly all of the endangered winter run Chinook salmon juveniles perish due to warm water conditions in the Sacramento River this year, but the majority of adult spring-run Chinook salmon on Butte Creek perished before spawning this year, due to an outbreak of disease in low and warm water conditions: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/11/30/fishery-biologist-delta-smelt-are-likely-virtually-extinct-in-the-wild/