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CSPA Presents at Salmonid Restoration Federation Conference
I sometimes tell fishing clubs when I talk to them that CSPA works in long and difficult regulatory processes so the clubs don’t have to. There is so much regulatory and legal work to do to save and restore California’s fish and the communities that depend on them. On many levels, the effort in California’s…
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Governor Newsom Ends 2021 Drought Emergency after CSPA, AquAlliance Sue
On March 24, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation to end the 2021 Drought Emergency. Gov. Newsom’s action came approximately two weeks after nonprofits CSPA and AquAlliance filed a lawsuit regarding the matter on March 10, 2026 in Alameda County Superior Court. The proclamation can be found in a list of terminations of states of emergency. The end to the drought emergency is welcome because the emergency had weakened environmental…
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Bad News for All: AHO’s Draft Water Rights Decision for Proposed Sites Reservoir
On March 20, 2026, the Administrative Hearings Office (AHO) for the State Water Resources Control Board (Board) issued a Draft Decision regarding water rights for the proposed Sites Reservoir. The Draft Decision followed over a year of evidentiary hearings that ended with reply briefs in June 2025. The Draft Decision is accompanied by a Draft Water Rights Permit. The Draft Decision proposes granting the…
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Changing the rules
A 2/12/26 letter from four San Joaquin Valley congressmen pleaded with Governor Newsom to waive a Delta outflow requirement in 2026. The requirement is the “Port Chicago standard” in Water Rights Decision 1641 (D-1641), in effect since 2000. Additional letters from the “Coalition for a Sustainable Delta” and from Westlands Water District made similar requests.…
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Stop the Voluntary Agreements: A Thin Layer of Frosting on the Rotting Cake of Business as Usual
The updated Bay-Delta Plan will set flows into San Francisco Bay, through the Delta estuary upstream, and in the Sacramento Valley rivers that flow into the Delta. On December 12, 2025, the State Water Resources Control Board (the Board) issued two major documents that describe its latest proposal for an update. These are the Revised…
