<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp2becd4e8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"></div><div id="ydpf66e9aceyahoo_quoted_4792438214" class="ydpf66e9aceyahoo_quoted"><div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#26282a;"><div><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"><div><a href="https://www.sacbee.com/article249212275.html" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.sacbee.com/article249212275.html</a><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"><br class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"><h1 class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747h1"> Trump sending more California water to farms troubled federal biologists. They were sidelined
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<a href="mailto:rsabalow@sacbee.com" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> By Ryan Sabalow</a>,
</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747byline">
Dale Kasler,
</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747byline">
Jimmy Tobias for The Guardian, and
</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747byline">
Emily Holden for The Guardian
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February 13, 2021 02:45 AM,
<div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747update_date" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747time ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747update-date">Updated 12 minutes ago </div>
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<div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747new-video-design ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747videoVueInstance"> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-detail-240450856-1613237221146" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747media-wrap ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747test"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747playerWrap-240450856-1613237221146" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-wrapper ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-media"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-workinghover ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-v7 ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-controls-enabled ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-fluid ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747mi-videojs ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-16-9 ydpf66e9aceyiv12051507470 ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-paused ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-js ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-user-active ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747player-240450856-1613237221146-dimensions" data-url="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article240450856.html" id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747player-240450856-1613237221146" lang="en"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-workinghover ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-v7 ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-controls-enabled ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-fluid ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747mi-videojs ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-16-9 ydpf66e9aceyiv12051507470 ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-paused ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-js ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-user-active ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747player-240450856-1613237221146-dimensions" data-url="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article240450856.html" id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747player-240450856-1613237221146" lang="en"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-control-bar" dir="ltr"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-control ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-duration ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-time-control"><span class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-control-text">Duration </span><span class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-duration-display">3:30</span></div></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-text-track-display"><div style="margin:1.5%;" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"></div></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-title-bar">Hear President Trump talk about California's water situation and what he's going to do about it</div></div> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-share-wrapper"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-share"></div></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747lead-item"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747new-video-design ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747videoVueInstance"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-detail-240450856-1613237221146" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747media-wrap ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747test"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747playerWrap-240450856-1613237221146" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-wrapper ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747video-media"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-share-wrapper"> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747vjs-share"></div></div></div></div></div> President
Donald Trump made a visit to Bakersfield on Wednesday to sign an
agreement that will provide more northern California water to farmers in
the San Joaquin Valley. <span class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747byline">By <a href="mailto:ckohlruss@fresnobee.com?subject=Hear President Trump talk about California's water situation and what he's going to do about it" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Craig Kohlruss<span class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747glyphicon ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747glyphicon-envelope"></span></a></span> </div>
</div> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747trinity-player-iframe-wrapper" style="min-height:70px;"></div> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Federal
scientists and regulators repeatedly complained they were sidelined by
former President Donald Trump’s administration when they warned of risks
to wildlife posed by a California water management plan, according to
newly unveiled documents.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">The plan, which was finalized in late
2019, favored the former president’s political allies — farmers upset
with environmental protections that kept them from receiving more
irrigation water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of
California’s water network.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">A top California fisheries regulator
questioned whether officials with the Trump administration were
violating her agency’s “scientific integrity” policy, and warned her
boss that the administration’s methodology “definitely raises a flag.” A
scientist said he feared “the pendulum was always going to swing in the
favor of political decisions.” Another vowed to stand up for science
even if “someone tries to bury it.”</p> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-101" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747ConnatixVideoAd" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"></div></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">These
blunt exchanges are among 350 pages of emails, memos and meeting notes
filed in federal court in Sacramento by California officials in December
that provide evidence of political meddling in federal environmental
regulation in California. They are part of a lawsuit from the state to
overturn the Trump administration’s rewrite of rules for how
California’s increasingly scarce water supplies are shared. The plan now
could be overturned by the courts or by a review launched by President
Joe Biden.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who sits on
the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Fish and
Wildlife Service, called some of the revelations “blatantly illegal,”
and “text-book illegal.”</p> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747grid ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747combo ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-103" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"></div></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">“Frankly
we all knew they were going to find a way to do this. The surprising
part is that they were so overt and ham handed about it,” Huffman said.</p> <h3 class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Trump promised to deliver</h3><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">At
issue was the federal plan to divide water between the state’s Central
Valley farmers and its river ecosystems, which support fish protected by
endangered species laws. Under law, the U.S. government is supposed to
rely on a trove of scientific data to strike a balance between the two.
But in this case, a federal official urged scientists to help
green-light bigger water deliveries to agriculture.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">California’s
water problems are increasingly the norm across the American West, where
communities from Idaho to Arizona are grappling with persistent and
worsening drought conditions. The allotment of this shrinking supply of
water is becoming a political question of existential importance for
thirsty industries, imperiled wildlife and urban dwellers who some day
could be forced into rationing.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">In 2016, Trump promised farmers
at a Fresno campaign rally he would “solve your water problem,” and stop
environmentalists from “taking the water and shoving it out to sea.”
Two years later, he issued an executive order that called for “<a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article217013095.html" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">maximizing water supply deliveries</a>” to farmers.</p> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747grid ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747combo ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"><div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-104" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el"><form id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747newsletter-signUpWidget" method="POST" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747inline-cta ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747package" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><h5 id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747newsletter-title" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747h1">The
state’s two most important rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin,
converge into an enormous freshwater estuary. Much of the water is
allowed to flow to the Pacific, but giant pumps operated by the state
and the federal government’s Central Valley Project siphon a significant
portion and ship it to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and more than 20
million Southern Californians and Silicon Valley residents.</h5></form></div></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Powerful
agricultural groups have seen their deliveries curtailed over the
decades to protect fish. They brought their concerns to Trump, and he
turned to David Bernhardt, the head of the Interior department and a
former lobbyist for the Westlands Water District, an influential
farm-irrigation district in the San Joaquin Valley.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Federal
agency scientists are required under federal law to review any changes
to how the Central Valley’s water delivery system is managed to ensure
no further harm comes to the species.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Scientists say shipping
more water to the Central Valley over the years has contributed to the
decline of the delta eco-system and brought smelt, Chinook salmon and
other species to the brink of extinction. The pumps are so powerful that
they can reverse the river flows within the estuary, diverting
migratory fish into the paths of predatory fish and the pumps
themselves.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">In the spring of 2019, a few months after Trump
issued his order to maximize water deliveries, federal scientists were
rushing to complete the legally-required study of how Trump’s plan would
impact endangered fish that live and migrate through the delta’s
fragile estuary. They had to decide whether to issue a species “jeopardy
opinion,” meaning the fish’s continued existence would have been
jeopardized by the Trump plan. That could have thwarted the effort to
move more water to farmers.</p> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-106" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Paul
Souza, a regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who is
still in his position under the Biden administration, didn’t want that
to happen. In the May 2019 meeting,<a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20475924-exhibit-15#document/p41/a2017061" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Souza told his colleagues that the “goal” of their reviews was “no J”,</a>
a reference to a jeopardy opinion, according to the meeting notes.
“That is the objective,” Souza said, “and the schedule does not allow
time for a J.”</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">“No one,”<a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20475942-souza-meeting-notes#document/p7/a2017064" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> he added later in the meeting</a>, “would ask anyone in this room to do something that lacks in integrity.”</p> <h3 class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Regulators and scientists push back</h3><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Two weeks after that meeting, Maria Rea, a senior policy advisor with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Sacramento,<a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20475924-exhibit-15#document/p32/a2017058" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">
sent her boss an email complaining that the Department of Interior was
halting her from sending scientific data out for peer review</a>, a common practice among scientists. That “definitely raises a flag with respect to scientific integrity,” she wrote.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">A
month later, Cathy Marcinkevage, an agency branch chief, sent her
colleagues a link to a news story about a federal scientist being
forbidden from testifying before Congress about climate change.<a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20475924-exhibit-15#document/p41/a2017061" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Marcinkevage wrote that the story left her with a familiar feeling</a>, but she vowed to “do the right thing” even if “someone else tries to bury” her work.</p> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-107" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">On July 1,<a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-08-20/trump-california-water-salmon-farms" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the scientists issued their report, saying</a>
the Trump water plan would hurt endangered and threatened Chinook
salmon and steelhead, as well as endangered killer whales that depend on
the fish for their food supply.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Independently, fisheries biologist Howard Brown wrote a<a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20475933-howard-brown-memo#document/p1/a2017067" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> five-page memo</a> arguing that his team delivered an honest, scientifically-based conclusion in spite of political interference.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">“From
the beginning of this consultation it was clear to me that the pendulum
was always going to swing in the favor of political decisions,” he
wrote.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Two days after the report, the Trump administration directed a<a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article234220102.html" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> “strike team”</a> to rewrite the scientists’ findings.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Gone
were the warnings that salmon and whales would suffer. The new version,
finalized in the fall of 2019, loosened the rules to free up more water
deliveries to farmers, as Trump had demanded.</p> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-108" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"></div><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Critics
say Souza, in encouraging his colleagues to approve the
administration’s plan by pursuing a preordained outcome during their
environmental review, may have violated the Endangered Species Act.</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Dan
Rohlf, an endangered species law expert and professor at Lewis and
Clark Law School in Oregon, said Souza’s actions may also have violated
federal procedural rules. During environmental reviews, federal agencies
are supposed to “start with facts, go through an analysis, then reach a
conclusion,” he said. What happened here was basically the opposite, he
said. </p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Doug Obegi, a water attorney with the Natural Resources
Defense Council — which is challenging the Trump decisions — called the
process revealed by the records “incredibly disturbing.”</p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Souza
insisted in October 2019 there was no political interference. The final
decision, he told reporters in a conference call, was the product of<a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article236506123.html" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> “career conservation professionals.”</a></p><p class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">The
Biden administration’s Interior Department and the National Marine
Fisheries Service declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined an interview request on
Souza’s behalf.</p> <div id="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el-109" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone-el ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"></div><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747ng_endnote_contact">This story was also published in The Guardian.</div> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"></div> <div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747grid ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747zone"><div class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747story-module ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747related-stories">
<h5 class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747caps"></h5></div></div><div style="width: 1px; min-height: 1px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-family: sans-serif;" class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747"><br class="ydpf66e9aceyiv1205150747">Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/article249212275.html#storylink=cpy</div></div></div></div></div>
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