Sacramento, Calif. – In one of the final acts of the Biden Administration on January 10, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board regarding two petitions filed with the EPA by the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC) in December 2022
DTEC includes the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising and Restore the Delta.
The letter urged swift action on the San Francisco Bay-Delta Plan in support of Tribal and Bay-Delta communities at a time when the Bay-Delta ecosystem is in its worst-ever crisis as Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations collapse.
“The first petition was a Title VI civil rights complaint accepted by the EPA for investigation, asserting discriminatory practices and disparate impacts against California Tribes and communities of color in the Delta region by the State Water Board,” according to a statement from the DTEC. “The second petition, which EPA did not officially take action on, pertained to Clean Water Act violations due to the State Water Board’s failure to complete the Bay-Delta Plan as consistent with the law.”
The EPA submitted the letter to the State Water Board outlining an overall summary of their findings. This summary cites DTEC’s Title VI complaint and highlights:
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The injury to Tribes from loss of fish and other riparian resources and proliferation of harmful algal blooms.
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The EPAs strong support for adoption of Tribal Beneficial Uses as a water quantity and quality monitoring standard.
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Recognition that current objectives are impairing tribal beneficial uses and that strong objectives are required for tribal protections.
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Support for regulatory standards and recognition of the damage to Bay-Delta communities from the delay in adopting regulatory controls.
“As conveyed in prior comments, while EPA supports the State Water Board in its efforts to amend the Bay-Delta Plan, the ongoing delays in completing these amendments remain a significant concern given the consequences of these delays on ecological conditions as well as Bay-Delta communities,” wrote Tomás Torres, Director, Water Division 13. “EPA appreciates the opportunity to inform the State Water Board’s rulemaking process and remains committed working in partnership to protect and restore water quality in the Bay-Delta watershed.”
Regardless of the status of EPA programs going forward under the Trump administration, this letter is now part of the official record before the State Water Resources Control Board, the DTEC noted.
“DTEC urges the State Water Board and the Governor to take these findings into account and to act on them in a supportive manner in response to Trump’s Executive Orders regarding management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by completing the Bay-Delta Plan expeditiously now,” the Coalition stated. “Voluntary agreements for water management should be separate, incorporate impacted parties including tribal and community interests, and should happen after a successful completion of the Bay-Delta Plan.”
“Facts are facts. Science is science. And the harm done to tribes and Delta communities from years of delay in setting proper water quality standards is well documented. Despite changes at the federal level, nothing changes these truths. The question is whether the State Water Resources Control Board will serve all water interests equally under the law going forward,” the DTEC concluded.
The letter follows the release of California Department of Fish and Wildlife data revealing that zero Delta Smelt, once the most abundant fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, were caught in the agency’s Fall Midwater Trawl survey for the seventh year in a row: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/...
It is alarming that zero Delta smelt, an indicator species villainized as a “worthless fish” by Donald Trump and his corporate agribusiness allies, were caught in the survey despite the release of tens of thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt into the Delta over the past few years by the state and federal governments.
The significance of the Delta smelt’s role in the Bay-Delta Estuary can’t be overstated. ”Delta Smelt are the thread that ties the Delta together with the river system,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “We all should understand how that affects all the water systems in the state. They are the irreplaceable thread that holds the Delta system together with Chinook salmon.”
The other fish species collected in the fall survey — striped bass, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the threadfin shad showed an increase from the last year’s index — and that population is still at just a fraction of its former abundance.