Central Valley Republicans are calling on the State Water Resources Control Board to not adopt the proposed Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, saying it will harm farmers and local communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lawmakers sent a letter to the board warning that the plan could cause the federal government to withhold funding for habitat restoration projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Driving the news: State and federal officials have been working on the water plan for years, culminating in a draft plan released in August that is scheduled to be adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plan would require water agencies to limit pumping or participate in voluntary agreements to commit to certain river flows, as well as paying for habitat restoration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westlands Water District came out against the proposal, saying the state substantially changed the terms of an agreement that was negotiated in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent a letter to the state saying the proposal will farm farmers by restricting pumping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zoom in: GOP lawmakers wrote in their letter to the State Water Resources Control Board that the plan establishes a framework based on 55% of unimpaired flow on Sacramento and Delta tributaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a sweeping regulatory approach could have significant consequences for reservoir storage, water deliveries, groundwater conditions, agricultural production, rural communities, and the broader California economy,\u201d the letter reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But critical elements of how that regulatory program would operate remain unresolved, lawmakers argue in the letter, asking the board to fully define the regulatory program and evaluate its real-world water supply and economic consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia has spent years working toward a collaborative solution for the Bay-Delta,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cThe State should not jeopardize that progress by adopting a Plan before its obligations and consequences are fully understood. We urge the Board and the Administration to address these fundamental issues before final adoption.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: \u201cThe State Water Board is asking the Valley to accept the consequences before it has finished defining the rules,\u201d said Assembly Republican Leader Alexandra M. Macedo (R-Tulare). \u201cBefore Sacramento moves forward, Valley families, farmers and communities deserve to know what this will actually mean for their water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asm. Juan Alanis (R\u2013Modesto) added, \u201cYou cannot run a farm, a food processor or a city water system on \u2018we\u2019ll figure it out later.\u2019 If the state cannot tell Valley communities what this plan will actually do, it is not ready to be adopted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Valley Republicans are calling on the State Water Resources Control Board to not adopt the proposed Bay-Delta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-467213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}