Gov. Newsom Suspends Laws that Protect Fish
“Governor Newsom’s executive order perpetuates the lie that water in rivers flowing to the ocean is wasted. Really, how is this any different than what Donald Trump said about the Delta?”
- Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta
Newsom suspends environmental laws to store more Delta water – CalMatters 2/14/2023
Facing an onslaught of criticism that water was “wasted” during January storms, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday suspended environmental laws to give the go-ahead to state officials to hold more water in reservoirs.
The governor’s executive order authorized the State Water Resources Control Board to “consider modifying” state requirements that dictate how much water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is allowed to flow into San Francisco Bay….
Doug Obegi, a water law attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Newsom’s order the latest action in “a breakdown of law and order in the Delta.” In every critically dry year since 2012, Obegi said, the state’s flow rules and water export restrictions have been waived.
“Now, it seems, we’re going to start waiving them in average years,” Obegi said, adding that it’s the first time that the state has waived Delta outflow standards in a year that isn’t designated critically dry.
“The executive order seems to signal the governor’s intention to put his thumbs on the scale in favor of extinction in the Delta….”
Changing the rules is “like having a speed limit in a school zone except when you’re in a hurry,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director of the San Francisco Baykeeper.
“We’ve got a violation of water quality standards, a petition (by a state and federal agency) to waive those standards, and a governor’s executive order encouraging the board to waive those standards through his executive order.
“There’s not much difference between a world without environmental laws and a world where, at the stroke of a governor’s pen, environmental laws are eviscerated,” he said.
https://calmatters.org/environment/2023 ... lta-water/
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