Bakersfield, CA – Karla Nemeth, Governor Gavin Newsom’s top water official, told an audience of growers and water managers at the Kern County Water Summit on March 6 that the state is willing to work with the Trump Administration to weaken environmental rules that restrict the pumping of water, allowing them over-pump the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
“She said that she expected updating one particular rule governing pumping water in the state’s main water hub, called the Old and Middle River flow limit, to be part of ongoing regulations with federal counterparts this spring and throughout the year,” according to Politico.
“My spidey sense is that’s probably going to be part of what plan comes out of the federal administration’s plan to implement the executive order,” said Nemeth, the Director of the California Department of Water Resources. “The state is open to that. We’re looking for a federal partner to help us work through that information together.”
Delta advocates condemned this plan, saying it will destroy the Delta and its once abundant fish populations and ecosystem.
"Of course, the Special Advisor to Governor Newsom on California water, Karla Nemeth, is promoting a plan with the Trump Administration to over pump the Delta and then finish it off with a tunnel,” responded Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta in a statement. “This has been the direction of her entire career, and fulfills campaign promises for Governor Newsom to his political donors in Kern County, Stewart and Lynda Resnick. Governor Newsom, like President Trump, is facilitating the biggest transfer of public health and environmental health by pitting one area of California against the other through water transfers. He is a divider, not a uniter."
“At a time when California’s water future should be guided by science and sustainability, Governor Newsom is instead prioritizing corporate interests over Delta communities, fisheries, and the environment. Partnering with Trump on water policy will only deepen existing inequities, accelerate ecological collapse, and put frontline communities and California Tribes at greater risk,” concluded Barrigan-Parilla.
The news of the Newsom Administration’s stated willingness to collaborate with the Trump White House on weakening environmental protections for the Delta couldn’t come at a worse time. Zero Delta smelt, an indicator species that has been villainized by Donald Trump and his corporate agribusiness allies, have been caught in the CDFW’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for the seventh year in a row: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/...
Meanwhile, salmon fishing on California’s ocean and river waters has been closed for the past two years and is likely to be closed again this year, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations. Likewise, Sacramento River winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon are moving closer and closer to extinction, due to massive water exports from the Delta and other factors, including invasive species, toxics and water pollution.
The Governor is now moving full speed ahead with his plans to build the Sites Reservoir and Delta Tunnel. These projects, by diverting more water from the Sacramento River before it flows through the Delta, will only further exacerbate the critical situation that Delta fish species and Central Valley salmon populations are now in.
Why are Nemeth, Newsom and other state officials so willing to work with the Trump Administration on gutting environmental regulations?
It may have something to do with the fact that Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the billionaire owners of the Wonderful Company, have donated many millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican parties and to candidates for both parties over the years. They were instrumental in the creation of the Monterey Amendment, a 1994 pact between Department of Water Resources and State Water Project contractors, that allowed them to obtain their 57% stake in the Kern Water Bank.
The Resnicks are among the largest contributors to Gov. Gavin Newsom and, in fact, hosted his 2022 anti-recall campaign in a fundraising letter. In 2019, they made a donation of $750 million to Caltech and in 2022 made a $50 million donation to UC Davis, in addition to contributing millions to UCLA, CSU Fresno and other universities over the years.
The Resnicks have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022.
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.
The Resnicks have pushed for increased water exports from the Delta for agribusiness and the construction of the Delta Tunnel for many years.
