[env-trinity] What 'President Trump' might mean for Delta

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.recordnet.com/news/20161109/what-president-trump-might-mean-for-delta

What 'President Trump' might mean for Delta
By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer

The joke on social media after Donald Trump’s victory early Wednesday was that the tears of liberal Californians would refill the state’s reservoirs and end the drought.Since that doesn’t seem to have worked, it’s now a matter of waiting to see what policies the president-elect might push after Inauguration Day.And on that front, Delta advocates aren’t holding out much hope.Trump hasn’t said much about California water, but he did tell a Fresno audience at a rally in May that there is no drought at all, and that the water that farmers should have received was flushed out to sea in an effort to protect “a certain kind of 3-inch fish,” a reference to the imperiled Delta smelt.“Believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive,” Trump said at the time.“Opening up the water” implies increasing the volume of water exported south from the Delta, exports that are blamed in part for the long-term decline of the fragile river estuary west of Stockton. The Delta ecosystem suffers from a kind of perpetual drought because more than half of its fresh water historically has been diverted for human use.On Wednesday, Politico reported that an attorney who represented the Westlands Water District on litigation involving the Delta and the Endangered Species Act will head Trump’s transition team for the new Department of Interior, which oversees federal water and wildlife management in the Delta.Westlands, the nation’s largest water district, faces frequent water shortages south of the Delta and has used its political clout for many years to lobby for a more reliable share of Delta water.With Trump in power and a Republican-controlled Congress, the stars could align for an amendment of the Endangered Species Act that could lead to more pumping.“If you assume that there’s the possibility of changes in the way that the Endangered Species Act is implemented, or changes in the law itself, then that changes the dynamics of the Delta controversies,” said Barton “Buzz” Thompson, senior fellow with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.The impact on the Delta tunnels is unclear. The tunnels must be permitted by federal agencies before they can be built; a Trump administration could loosen the terms of those permits and may be more inclined to pitch in federal funding, Thompson said.On the other hand, water users might see relaxation of the endangered species rules as a preferable alternative to paying for the giant tunnels, he said.The potential for change doesn't stop with the Delta and the tunnels. The federal government also is funding the restoration of the San Joaquin River, which south Valley interests repeatedly have tried to kill over the past decade.Of course, state officials can pass laws, too.“To the degree that a Trump administration becomes more conservative on environmental issues, the state can certainly step in in most situations and enact its own protections,” Thompson said.Stockton-based Restore the Delta doesn’t get involved in political campaigns for office, executive director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said Wednesday.“But we can say where candidates stand on the issues,” she said. “(Trump’s) stance on the Delta smelt, on the Endangered Species Act, on climate change, on pumping water from the Delta and the amount of money he’s taken from Westlands growers and other growers in the San Joaquin Valley is very problematic for the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.”Westlands spokesman Johnny Amaral said it was too soon to say exactly what policy changes his district might recommend to the incoming administration, but said that after three years without receiving any water from the federal Central Valley Project, growers were hoping for a return to some sort of normalcy under Trump."When you start talking about project operations, people start getting nervous and lobbing bombs and allegations about what your intentions are," Amaral said. "Our intentions are to bring balance and fairness to how the projects are operated. Period. We're not asking for anything beyond that."He downplayed the involvement of attorney David Bernhardt in Trump's transition team, saying "there are a lot of people involved."Tuesday’s presidential vote put some conservative Delta farmers in an interesting position. Third-generation grower Mike Robinson, who opposes the tunnels, is leery that Trump will fast-track the project because the new president will want to “repay” financial supporters in the south Valley.But Robinson voted for Trump anyway, calling it less a vote for Trump than a vote against Hillary Clinton. He said he hopes Trump will be open to other views on water.“I am unselfish enough to look at the big picture of the national interest,” Robinson said. “I look at what is best for the country rather than what is best for me or my pocket.”— Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler at recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.
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