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parent that the state wants even more water but hasn’t expressed or justified the amount needed.” Williams added, “Their framework unfairly shifts responsibility for delta protection to the senior water rights holders on the Tuolumne River and is unlikely to achieve the desired fishery and water quality outcomes, either lo- cally or in the delta.” MID and TID are among a number of water districts, municipalities and others that have active litigation over the unim- paired flows criteria. A coalition of envi- ronmental and fishing groups has also sued, claiming the board should have directed even larger flows toward fish. California Farm Bureau filed its own lawsuit against the unimpaired-flows plan in February 2019, charging the wa- ter board failed to follow the California Environmental Quality Act and underes- timated the harm the planwould cause to agricultural resources intheCentralValley. ChrisScheuring,CaliforniaFarmBureau senior counsel, called the agencies’ deci- sion to cease negotiations “unfortunate.” “As a legal or policy matter, this is a huge water quality overlay in terms of basin planning under the water quality laws that is going to have a systemic con- flict with the structure of water rights,” he said. “It would have been good to find collaborative solutions that include fish-friendly practices that maybe don’t impact flows quite so directly.” Scheuring added, “The hard path of litigation is probably not a good path for anybody. Water users are left with no choice but to follow that litigation for- ward, and that’s unfortunate.” As the fight over water continues, Van Klaveren said, “We’re just plowing ahead like we normally do until there are rul- ings or if somebody comes and chains our gates closed.” For many years, Van Klaveren said his family has irrigated with a mix of district and groundwater, which is reused and placed in holding ponds. “We irrigate four days on the wells and three days out of the pond on recaptured water,” Van Klaveren said. “We’re using the best and highest efficiencies that we can because the more efficient you are, the more you’re sustainable, the more (money) youmake, and themore you can provide for your family, your neighbor and your community.” CalEPA and Resources Agency of- ficials noted in the letter to districts that the voluntary agreement from the districts will be submitted to the state water board for a third-party and environmental review, fol lowed by public participation. Meanwhile, efforts to advance the sec- ond phase for of the Bay-Delta plan for the Sacramento River tributaries is on- goingwith Sacramento River basinwater users and water agencies that contract with the state and federal water projects. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
saying it would do little to restore salm- on and other fish populations while cut- ting water supplies to the northern San Joaquin Valley. David Van Klaveren of Hol landia Nursery in Modesto receives water from Modesto Irrigation District to irrigate 800 different varieties of plants, trees and shrubs that are sold to garden-center re- tailers in California and other states. “Restricting water rights is a big deal, so it’s going to affect our farm ground in this area,” said Van Klaveren, who also grows almonds. “It is going to hurt our production (at the nursery) and produc- tion of food.” Ca l i f orni a EPA Sec re t ar y Jared Blumenfeld and state Natural Resources Agency SecretaryWade Crowfoot signed an Oct. 20 letter sent to affected water districts. They included MID, Oakdale Irrigation District, Merced Irrigation District, Turlock Irrigation District, San Francisco Public Utilities District and South San Joaquin Irrigation District. The letter thanked them for engage- ment over the past few years to devel- op voluntary agreements to improve conditions for fish and wildlife in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its major rivers. The agreementswere intended to form
David Van Klaveren of Hollandia Nursery irrigates 800 varieties of plants, trees and shrubs.
a framework for funding and managing river flows and habitat protection. But now state agencies said that they are moving forward with the 2018 plan ad- opted by the state water board. “At thi s point ,” Blumenfeld and Crowfoot said in their letter, “it is clear that despite considerable efforts, pro- posed voluntary actions by water agen- cies on the San Joaquin River tributaries have fallen short of needed flowandhab- itat improvements, and viable proposals are not being offered at this time.” The officials said they would ask the statewater board “to resume all activities necessary to implement the flow objec-
tives established by the 2018 Bay-Delta Plan for the Lower San JoaquinRiver and its three major tributaries.” Modesto and Turlock irrigation dis- tricts, which jointly operate Don Pedro Reservoir on the Tuolumne River, pro- tested that state officials were abandon- ing negotiations. “After more than two years and count- less hours of active participation in vol- untary agreement negotiations with the state, MID and TID are extremely disappointed that theNewsomadminis- tration has walked away from the table,” saidMelissaWilliams,Modesto Irrigation District public affairs manager. “It’s ap-
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