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Newsom’s 2023 California Water Plan: Supplying Imaginary Water to Meet an Insatiable Demand
On April 2, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the release of the 2023 update of the California Water Plan (Water Plan). Governor Newsom announced the Water Plan at a press conference held at Phillips Station in the high Sierra, just after this year’s snowpack was measured there at 113 percent of average. At the press…
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Superior Court Upholds State Board’s Plan to Increase Flows on San Joaquin River but Denies Claims Flows are Inadequate to Protect Fish
In December 2018 the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) adopted updates to the Bay-Delta Plan (Plan) in accordance with its obligations under the Porter-Cologne Act. The updated Plan included flow objectives intended to restore and protect Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead in the lower San Joaquin River and its tributaries. Twelve lawsuits…
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Newsom “Strategy” Condemns Central Valley Salmon to “Hotter, Drier Future”
The “California Salmon Strategy” announced January 30, 2024 by the Newsom Administration is a tour de force of avoidance and deflection. It blows right past the single largest issue facing California’s salmon: inadequate flows into and through the Bay-Delta Estuary. The Newsom administration has been, and continues to be, on the wrong side of Delta…
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How A Lack of Regulatory Oversight Dried Up the Merced River – The State Water Board Needs to Protect Merced River Flows Now
The Merced River, the iconic wild and scenic river flowing out of Yosemite National Park, died in the summer of 2022 upstream of its confluence with the San Joaquin River. The river was completely dewatered from July 7 to October 7. It was dead for 3 months over a nearly 5-mile stretch. It could not…
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CSPA Submits Comments on Proposed Bay-Delta Plan Update
On Friday, January 19, 2024, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and AquAlliance submitted comments on the State Water Resources Control Board’s (State Board’s) proposed changes to the Bay-Delta Plan. The State Board proposed these changes in a Draft Staff Report (Report) released on September 28, 2023. The stated objective of the Plan update is to provide…
