RTD on Gov. Newsom’s Drought Expansion Proclamation

[WB Staff]

Restore the Delta on Gov. Newsom’s Drought Expansion Proclamation (more detailed analysis Tuesday 5/11)
Stockton, CA – Governor Newsom today expanded his drought emergency declaration to 39 additional counties, 41 in all now. Read the Governor’s PROCLAMATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY. (SEE BELOW)

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director:
Governor Newsom’s latest declaration tears pages from the playbook Governor Brown used in 2013 and 2014. Everyone gets something except the Delta. We get salinity barriers. This will disrupt waterways and create stagnant pools with larger harmful algal blooms throughout the summer and fall. These algal blooms pose dangers to public health through water contact to people and dogs, but also from the emission of airborne contaminants.
Under this plan, multiple fish species in the Delta, like Chinook salmon and Delta smelt, may become part of the sixth great mass extinction on Governor Newsom’s watch.
Tim Stroshane, policy analyst:
Governor Newsom’s latest declaration signals that “temporary urgency change” petitions will be sought by the US Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources to waive water quality objectives in the Delta.
Today's proclamation also gestures in the direction of preserving existing cold-water pools in the upstream reservoirs, particularly at Shasta and Oroville lakes. This is likely too little too late. Unfortunately, these reservoirs are already extremely low, and their cold-water pools were dissipated over this past winter when supplies were shipped to southern California and San Luis Reservoir south of the Delta.


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA PROCLAMATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY
WHEREAS climate change is intensifying the impacts of droughts on our
communities, environment, and economy, and California is in a second
consecutive year of dry conditions, resulting in drought or near-drought
throughout many portions of the State; and
WHEREAS recent warm temperatures and extremely dry soils have further
depleted the expected runoff water from the Sierra-Cascade snowpack,
resulting in a historic and unanticipated estimated reduction of 500,000 acre
feet of water - or the equivalent of supplying water for up to one million
households for one year - from reservoirs and stream systems, especially in the
Klamath River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake Watersheds;
and
WHEREAS the extreme drought conditions through much of the State
present urgent challenges, including the risk of water shortages in communities,
greatly increased wildfire activity, diminished water for agricultural production,
degraded habitat for many fish and wildlife species, threat of saltwater
contamination of large fresh water supplies conveyed through the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta, and additional water scarcity if drought conditions continue
into next year; and
WHEREAS Californians have saved water through conservation efforts, with
urban water use approximately 16% below where it was at the start of the last
drought years, and I encourage all Californians to undertake actions to further
eliminate wasteful water practices and conserve water; and
WHEREAS on April 21, 2021, I issued a proclamation directing state
agencies to take immediate action to bolster drought resilience and prepare for
impacts on communities, businesses, and ecosystems, and proclaiming a State
of Emergency to exist in Mendocino and Sonoma counties due to severe
drought conditions in the Russian River Watershed; and
WHEREAS additional expedited actions are now needed in the Klamath
River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake Watersheds; and
WHEREAS it is necessary to expeditiously mitigate the effects of the
drought conditions within the Klamath River Watershed Counties (Del Norte,
Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties), the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta Watershed Counties (Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa,
Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa,
Merced, Modoc, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San
Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity,
Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba counties), and the Tulare Lake Watershed Counties
(Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare counties) to ensure the protection of health,
safety, and the environment; and
WHEREAS under Government Code Section 8558(b), I find that the
conditions caused by the drought conditions, by reason of their magnitude, are
or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and
facilities of any single local government and require the combined forces of a
mutual aid region or regions to appropriately respond; and
WHEREAS under Government Code Section 8625(c), I find that local
authority is inadequate to cope with the drought conditions; and
WHEREAS to protect public health and safety, it is critical the State take
certain immediate actions without undue delay to prepare for and mitigate the
effects of, the drought conditions statewide, and under Government Code
Section 8571, I find that strict compliance with various statutes and regulations
specified in this proclamation would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of
the effects of the drought conditions in the Klamath River, Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake Watershed Counties.
NOW THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, in
accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution and
statutes, including the California Emerg~ncy Services Act, and in particular,
Section 8625, HEREBY PROCLAIM A STATE OF EMERGENCY to exist in the Klamath
River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake Watershed Counties due
to drought.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
l. The orders and provisions contained in my April 21, 2021 Proclamation
remain in full force and effect, except as modified. State agencies
shall continue to implement all directions from that proclamation and
accelerate implementation where feasible.
2. To ensure that equipment and services necessary for drought response
can be procured quickly, the provisions of the Government Code and
the Public Contract Code applicable to procurement, state contracts,
and fleet assets, including, but not limited to, advertising and
competitive bidding requirements, are hereby suspended to the extent
necessary to address the effects of the drought in the Klamath River,
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake Watershed Counties.
Approval of the Department of Finance is required prior to the
execution of any contract entered into pursuant to this provision.
3. To support voluntary approaches where hydrology and other
conditions allow, the Department of Water Resources and the State
Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) shall expeditiously
consider requests to move water, where appropriate, to areas of need,
including requests involving voluntary water transfers, forbearance
agreements, water exchanges, or other means. Specifically, the
Department of Water Resources and Water Board shall prioritize
transfers that retain a higher percentage of water in upstream
reservoirs on the Sacramento, Feather, and American Rivers for release
later in the year. If necessary, the Department of Water Resources shall
request that the Water Board consider changes to water rights permits
to enable such voluntary movements of water. For actions taken in the
Klamath River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed Counties
pursuant to this paragraph, the following requirements of the Water
Code are suspended:
a. Section l 726(d) requirements for written notice and newspaper
publication, provided that the Water Board shall post notice on
its website and provide notice through electronic subscription ·
services where interested persons can request information about
temporary changes; and
b. Section 1726(f) requirement of a 30-day comment period,
provided that the Water Board shall afford a 15-day comment
period.
4. To ensure adequate, minimal water supplies for purposes of health,
safety, and the environment, the Water Board shall consider modifying
requirements for reservoir releases or diversion limitations-including
where existing requirements were established to implement a water
quality control plan-to conserve water upstream later in the year in
order to protect cold water pools for salmon and steelhead, improve
water quality, protect carry over storage, or ensure minimum health
and safety water supplies. The Water Board shall require monitoring
and evaluation of any such changes to inform future actions. For
actions taken in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed
Counties pursuant to this paragraph, Water Code Section 13247 is
suspended.
5. To ensure protection of water needed for health, safety, and the
environment in the Klamath River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Watershed Counties, the Water Board shall consider emergency
regulations to curtail water diversions when water is not available at
water right holders' priority of right or to protect releases of stored
water. The Department of Water Resources shall provide technical
assistance to the Water Board that may be needed to develop
appropriate water accounting for these purposes in the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta Watershed.
6. To ensure critical instream flows for species protection in the Klamath
River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watersheds, the Water
Board and Department of Fish and Wildlife shall evaluate the minimum
instream flows and other actions needed to protect salmon, steelhead,
and other native fishes in critical streams systems in the State and work
with· water users and other parties on voluntary measures to implement
those actions. To the extent voluntary actions are not sufficient, the
Water Board, in coordination with the Department of Fish and Wildlife,
shall consider emergency regulations to establish minimum drought
instream flows.
7. Operative paragraph 4 of my April 21, 2021 Proclamation is withdrawn
and superseded by the following, which shall'apply to the Russian River
Watershed identified in my April 21, 2021 Proclamation as well as the
Klamath River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Tulare Lake
Watershed Counties:
To prioritize drought response and preparedness resources, the
Department of Water Resources, the Water Board, the Department of
Fish and Wildlife, and the Department of Food and Agriculture, in
consultation with the Department of Finance, shall:
a. Accelerate funding for water supply enhancement, water
conservation, or species conservation projects.
b. Identify unspent funds that can be repurposed to enable
projects to address drought impacts to people, ecosystems, and
economic activities.
c. Recommend additional financial support for groundwater
substitution pumping to support Pacific flyway habitat needs in
the lower Sacramento River and Feather River portions of the
Central Valley in the Fall of 2021.
8. Consistent with operative paragraph 13 of my April 21, 2021
Proclamation, the Department of Water Resources shall take actions, if
necessary, to implement plans that address potential Delta salinity
issues. Such actions may include, among other things, the installation
and removal of, Emergency Drought Salinity Barriers at locations within
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. These barriers shall be
designed to conserve water for use later in the year to meet state and
federal Endangered Species Act requirements, preserve to the extent
possible water quality in the Delta, and retain water supply for human
health and safety uses. The Water Board and the Department of Fish
and Wildlife shall immediately consider any necessary regulatory
approvals needed to install Emergency Drought Salinity Barriers. For
actions taken pursuant to this paragraph, Section 13247 and the
provisions of Chapter 3 ( commencing with Section 85225) of Part 3 of
Division 35 of the Water Code are suspended.
9. To support the movement of water from areas of relative plenty to
areas of relative scarcity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
Tulare Lake Watershed Counties, the Department of Water Resources
shall expedite the consideration and, where appropriate, the
implementation of pump-back delivery of water through the State
Water Project on behalf of local water agencies.
l 0. To proactively prevent situations where a community runs out of
drinking water, the Water Board, the Department of Water Resources,
the Office of Emergency Services, and the Office of Planning and
Research shall assist local agencies in identifying acute drinking water
shortages in domestic water supplies, and shall work with local
agencies in implementing solutions to those water shortages.
11 .For purposes of carrying out or approving any actions contemplated
by the directives in operative paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, the
environmental review by state agencies required by the California
Environmental Quality Act in Public Resources Code, Division 13
(commencing with Section 21000) and regulations adopted pursuant
to that Division are hereby suspended to the extent necessary to
address the impacts of the drought in the Klamath River, SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta and Tulare Lake Watershed Counties. For purposes
of carrying out the directive in operative paragraph 10, for any ( a)
actions taken by the listed state agencies pursuant to that directive,
(b) actions taken by a local agency where the Office of Planning and
Research concurs that local action is required, and (c) permits
necessary to carry out actions under (a) or (b), Public Resources Code,
Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) and regulations adopted
pursuant to that Division are hereby suspended to the extent necessary
to address the impacts of the drought in counties where the Governor
has proclaimed a drought state of emergency. The entities
implementing these directives shall maintain on their websites a list of
all activities or approvals for which these provisions are suspended.
12.To ensure transparency in state agency actions, the Water Board and
Department of Water Resources will maintain on their websites a list of
the activities or approvals by their agencies for which provisions of the
Water Code are suspended under operative paragraphs 3, 4, or 8 of
this proclamation.
13.To ensure that posting and dissemination of information related to
drought emergency activities is not delayed while accessible versions
of that information are being created, Government Code Sections
7405 and 11546.7 are hereby suspended as they pertain to the posting
of materials on state agency websites as part of responding to the
drought emergency, provided that any state agencies failing to satisfy
these code sections shall make and post an accessible version on their
websites as soon as practicable.
This proclamation is not intended to, and does not, create any rights or
benefits, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the
State of California, its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or
any other person.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this proclamation be
filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and
notice be given of this proclamation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my
hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of
Californi to be affixed this 10th day of May 2021 .
Governor of California
ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, PH.D.
Secretary of State

[mark poulson]

If we can pipe oil 1000 miles across Alaska, or from Canada to Louisiana, why can't we pump water from the Mississippi to Lake Powell, to bring water to the west?

[gabuelhaj]

California will drain the source dry and nobody wants that...

Good luck!