Trump administration tells California its key water plan is 'unworkable'

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Set us as preferred The huge inland body of water that is the heart of California’s water system is under major stress.That’s why state officials say they worked for years to come up with a plan to help halt the ecological decline of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Now that plan is under attack from the Trump administration and the largest irrigation authority in the Central Valley.In a letter, the U.S.

Bureau of Reclamation says California’s plan for the Delta will shortchange farmers by restricting how much water the federal government pumps from the state’s largest rivers.The letter says the plan threatens the “entire fabric of California’s agricultural economy.”The bureau manages one of California’s two main water systems, including massive pumps that pull water from the Delta and send it flowing to farms and communities as far south as Bakersfield.

The agency said that if California regulators don’t change the plan, the federal government won’t contribute funds to projects that restore habitat for fish and other wildlife, something endorsed by Gov.Gavin Newsom.The Central Valley’s Westlands Water District also announced it would pull out of providing funds for habitat restoration if the state sticks to its current plan, because it abandons key parts of agreements negotiated with the state in 2022.“The state substantially has changed the terms and walked away” from that earlier deal, Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo said.The state’s bay-Delta plan has been in the making throughout Newsom’s two terms as governor.

It “reflects years of collaboration with water users, federal and state agencies” and others, and includes “substantial revisions made in response to comments from the Bureau of Reclamation,” said Jackie Carpenter, a spokesperson for t...