[env-trinity] East Bay Times Editorial: Trump win likely means Delta disaster

[Tom Stokely]

Trump win likely means Delta disaster Donald Trump’s victory spells potential disaster for the future of the Sacramento- San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary west of the Mississippi and a major drinking water source in the East Bay.It’s essential that Trump appoint a secretary of the Interior who will balance the state’s water demands with the need to protect the long-term health of the Delta. If he fails to do so, it will be incumbent on California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and newly elected Kamala Harris, to stand firm on what is arguably Northern California’s most pressing issue.The president-elect has yet to offer an opinion on whether he will support Gov. Jerry Brown’s massive twin tunnels Delta plan. But we do know this. Speaking to a group of Central Valley farmers in September, Trump declared, 1) “There is no drought” in California, and 2) “Even the environmentalists don’t know why” a minimum amount of water has to flow into the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to protect the health of the waterway.Both are stupendously uninformed positions.The Delta’s health continues to deteriorate because of the Central Valley and Southern California’s unquenchable demand for additional water supplies. State biologists have acknowledged that salmon runs are diminishing at an alarming rate, and the Delta smelt, the canary in the coal mine for the Delta, is all but extinct.Scientists universally agree that the best wayto improve the health of the Delta is to pour more — not less — through the estuary. The latest report from the State Water Resources Control Board in September proposed leaving 30-50 percent more water in the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers to protect wildlife in the Delta. But two of Trump’s appointees to his transition team offer a strong indication that he’s planning to do the opposite.The most worrisome appointment is that of David Bernhardt, a lawyer who is a lobbyist for the Westlands Water District, which does the bidding of Central Valley’s corporate agriculture interests. More recently Westlands has been negotiating with Congress to mandate higher flows of water fromthe Delta. Trump has charged Bernhardt with leading the Interior Department transition team. The other troubling Trump transition team appointment is Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, who has spent the better part of the last decade trying to weaken the Clean Water Act.Nunes is a proponent of a major House water bill that would send more irrigationdeliveries to CentralValley farmers. Senate Democrats are the state’s only hope of killing the bill.During the campaign, Trump promised the Central Valley that he would “start opening up the water so that you farmers can survive.” Senators Harris and Feinstein will need to stay on their toes to preserve the health of California’s waterways.
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