On August 25, 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), filed a petition for temporary change to transfer up to 30,000 acre-feet (af) of water pursuant to California Water Code section 1725 et seq.

As climate-driven drought and wildfires rage in California, the Biden administration is struggling to navigate the hard politics that come with deciding who gets access to the state’s precious — and dwindling — water supplies.

The following discussion is from my testimony in 2016 for Part 1A of the WaterFix Water Right Change Petition hearing. It explains some key problems with the consideration of shifts in hydrology in the climate change analysis for the twin tunnels project.

Recently, the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) — an interagency consortium charged “to provide and integrate relevant and timely ecological information for management of the Bay-Delta” — released a report presenting data and studies regarding a major conservation action for delta smelt, referred to as the Fall X2 Action. The Fall X2 Action purports to benefit the delta smelt during the autumn by increasing outflow through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during that period in years where there is above normal precipitation in the preceding winter and spring.

Drought-plagued California is poised to bar thousands of farmers, landowners and others from pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, a move that irrigation districts said exceeds the water board’s authority.

When the legal battle over employees vs. contractors wrapped up in California, no one thought it could throw a wrench into the long-established independence of the scientific body charged with protecting a precious California resource in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: water.

The West has more hydrologic variability -- more flood years and drought years per average year -- than any other part of the country, Jay Lund, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, and the head of the school's Center for Watershed Sciences told ABC News.

A June heat wave sparked an earlier-than-expected algae bloom in the drought-ravaged drinking water reservoir in Price, Utah—a sign of climate change-related water quality challenges to come in the tinder-dry West.

A California water myth which becomes especially pernicious in droughts is that California is “running out of water” (Hanak et al. 2009). Viewing California’s supply and demand pressures in terms of fixed water requirements perpetuates this myth and invariably places undue attention on building additional supply infrastructure.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing too little too late to deal with California’s drought. The state and the Bay Area just experienced the driest rainy season ever, Golden Gate Weather Services reported last week. California received only 11.46 inches of rain, a 126-year low that is less than half of the normal 23.61 inches. The Bay Area’s rainfall was even worse. The region had only 9.88 inches of rain this season, compared to its normal of 25.28 inches

An environmental group in California said on Thursday that Gov. Gavin Newsom's call for residents to cut down their water use by 15 percent was, "too little, too late."

As extreme drought claims most of the state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom today asked Californians to voluntarily cut their water use by 15%.

The little-known Joint Powers Authority charged with getting the embattled Delta tunnel across its finish line recently changed executive directors, marking an exit for Kathryn Mallon, who had stirred controversy for her exorbitant pay and alleged pressuring of a citizens advisory committee to work through the most dangerous part of the pandemic.

California is grappling with drought again, facing many of the same conditions and challenges that were features of the 2012–16 drought—including stressed ecosystems, depleted reservoirs, hard-hit farms and rural communities, threats to urban water supplies, and the potential for extensive wildfires.

On the way out the door, the Trump administration committed many environmental and financial scandals. One can cost low-income water users while lining the pockets of one of California’s largest and most powerful water districts.

The West Coast’s most important estuary is dying, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has hastened its demise.

California’s continuing failure to adopt a comprehensive water strategy is exacerbating its looming drought crisis.

San Francisco Bay’s life support systems are unraveling quickly, and a wealth of science indicates that unsustainable water diversions are driving this estuary’s demise.

In March 2021, Kathryn Mallon resigned as Executive Director of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA.) The resignation came after labor negotiations with Metropolitan Water District’s representatives on the DCA Board.

Salinity has often become a major limit for irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions, from ancient Mesopotamia to parts of California today. A previous blog post showed that conjunctive use with more saline groundwater can differ fundamentally from freshwater aquifers.

As rangelands dry up, USDA will likely be the first to declare a drought emergency, said Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth on Tuesday. This will open up assistance to ranchers, who tend to be at ground zero for California droughts.

A young, driven policy wonk on tribal water rights who repeatedly sued the Interior Department during the Trump years has joined the agency in the Biden administration.

On the tail end of the second dry winter in a row, with water almost certain to be in short supply this summer, California water officials are apparently planning to largely drain the equivalent of the state’s two largest reservoirs to satisfy the thirst of water-wasting farmers.

At the February meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Watermaster Michael George updated the councilmembers on the efforts underway at the State Water Board to prepare for the increasing possibility of 2021 being critically dry.

President-elect Joe Biden chose Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) Thursday to serve as the first Native American Cabinet secretary and head the Interior Department, a historic pick that marks a turning point for the U.S. government’s relationship with the nation’s Indigenous peoples.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe in Humboldt County argued before a federal judge last Thursday that no Trinity River water can be sent to the Central Valley at the expense of the tribe’s fishery.

The forthcoming Biden administration is California’s best — and perhaps only — hope for solving vexing water issues that have largely been put on hold for more than a decade.

Along the scenic Sacramento River, two worlds are in conflict. The first world is comprised of farmers, making a living off the land. The other world is construction activity, with digging now underway in the Sacramento River Delta.

For years, I’ve been trying to impart a simple concept that Superman is not coming. Dare I say, I had hopes that this new administration would usher in the dawning of a new day.

Farm Futures blogger Gary Baise, an Illinois farmer and trial attorney at the law firm Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz PLC who served as the chief of staff to the first EPA administrator, previewed President-Elect Joe Biden's EPA review team in a recent column.

One of the goals in the California Water Commission’s strategic plan directs the Commission to remain apprised of the operations and construction activities of the State Water Project, focusing on how the State Water Project adapts and responds to hydrological extremes expected with climate change, restores critical ecosystems, and addresses aging infrastructure.

California’s hydrologic future is muddled by a fundamental uncertainty: will the state get wetter or drier? Climate models disagree on this question, but provide insights on other important water management questions.

California’s climate titans are ready to come in from the cold. Donald Trump spent the last four years trying to rein in California’s vast influence on American emissions, energy and environmental policy, given that any rule made by the nation’s biggest state ripples through the national economy.

The Delta Conveyance Project is a necessary investment to secure California’s water future. Let’s face it, our climate is changing rapidly and becoming more unpredictable – wildfires are larger and more frequent, the seas are rising, droughts are lasting longer and storms are fiercer.

Environmental groups have been strongly critical of the Department of Water Resources’ “blank check” Delta Program Revenue Bond / General Bond Resolution.

The San Joaquin Valley and urban Southern California are worlds apart in many ways. Yet each face growing water challenges and a shared interest in ensuring reliable, affordable water supplies to safeguard their people and economies.

In early March, just weeks before California shut down due to COVID-19, more than 200 tribal citizens, environmentalists and others gathered in the city of Redding to protest a proposed massive water tunnel in the state.

Amidst everything going on in the world these days, it’s easy to miss that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Met) is in the process of setting the course for Southern California’s water future, through a process called the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

Lobbing another hurdle at California’s $16 billion plan to tunnel underneath the West Coast’s largest estuary, environmentalists on Thursday sued to freeze public funding for the megaproject championed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

In September 2020, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) signed an agreement to provide an additional $15 million to the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA) for engineering design and field work in support of the Delta tunnel project. DWR had previously loaned the DCA $33.8 million, bringing the total to $48.8 million.

ACWA on Oct. 15 submitted “A Roadmap To Achieving the Voluntary Agreements” to Gov. Gavin Newsom and top members of his Administration that calls on the State to take the necessary steps to re-engage on Voluntary Agreements (VAs) regarding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta and its tributaries.

In December, the Metropolitan Water District Board of Directors will be asked to support a motion to fund a portion of the planning costs for the Delta Conveyance Project.

The San Francisco Bay-Delta is literally threatened from all sides: rising sea levels from the ocean, disruptions to sediment supply from upstream, and within the Bay-Delta itself, development and other land use changes have left only a tiny fraction (5%) of marshland untouched.

California has three Delta-related entities: Delta Protection Commission, Delta Protection Advisory Committee, and Delate Stewardship Council. What’s the difference?

The California Department of Water Resources (applicant) has applied for a permit to place dredged and fill material and/or work in waters of the U.S., resulting in permanent impacts to approximately 247.44 acres of waters, temporarily impacts to 87.17 acres of waters, and subsurface crossings under 16.88 acres of navigable waters.

Gov Gavin Newsome recently released his Water Resilience Plan.

As reported in the Sacramento Bee, the cost of a single-tunnel Delta conveyance is now estimated at $15.9 billion. In a previous 2018 analysis to support a short-lived proposal to stage the twin-tunnel WaterFix proposal, DWR estimated the single-tunnel 1st stage of WaterFix at $11.1 billion in 2017 dollars, which is equivalent to $11.7 billion in 2020 dollars.

Six former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs are calling for an agency reset after President Trump’s regulation-removing, industry-minded first term, backing a detailed plan by former EPA staffers that ranges from renouncing political influence in regulation to boosting climate-friendly electric vehicles.

Since it has been several months since the Committee has met, Bay Delta Initiatives Manager Steve Arakawa began by briefly touching on the recent history that brings the Delta Conveyance Project to where it is today.

The decades-long battle over an effort to raise the height of Shasta Dam took another turn Thursday when the Trump Administration released a new environmental report on the plan, just five years after completing a similar study.

Droughts are common in California. The drought of 2012-2016 had no less precipitation and was no longer than previous historical droughts (Figure 1), but came with record high temperatures (Figure 2) and low snowpack (Figure 3), which worsened many drought impacts.

Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA), a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure whose district includes 200 miles of the Sacramento River and is adjacent to several major ports, secured key provisions in the “Water Resources Development Act of 2020” (H.R.7575) for the California Delta and Central Valley. The legislation passed the House of Representatives unanimously and is expected to become law this year.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Paul Souza began the agenda item by acknowledging that the Central Valley Project Improvement Act is an important program that has invested millions of dollars in on the ground projects to benefit salmon and the ecosystem of the Delta and its watershed since its passage in 1992.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on July 28 unveiled a final version of his controversial Water Resilience Portfolio, a water plan that that includes the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the agribusiness-promoted “voluntary agreements.”

Governor Gavin Newsom today released a final version of the Water Resilience Portfolio, the Administration’s blueprint for equipping California to cope with more extreme droughts and floods, rising temperatures, declining fish populations, over-reliance on groundwater and other challenges.

In a previous 2018 analysis to support a short-lived proposal to stage the twin-tunnel WaterFix proposal, DWR estimated the single-tunnel 1st stage of WaterFix at $11.1 billion in 2017 dollars, which is equivalent to $11.7 billion in 2020 dollars.

The Trump administration is working to transfer ownership of federal water infrastructure to California's Westlands Water District, the country's largest irrigation provider and a former lobbying client of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

With state and federal administrations fighting in court about delta water operations—and with a pandemic and election year both underway—work has slowed on voluntary agreements meant to avoid severe cuts to northern San Joaquin Valley water supplies.

Three California environmental nonprofits secured a landmark settlement agreement with the California State Water Resources Control Board to uphold the common law Public Trust Doctrine and other legal protections for imperiled fish species in the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay/Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta Estuary.

Resolving an environmental lawsuit hatched during the state’s recent historic drought, California regulators on Tuesday promised new actions intended to ease the demise of endangered salmon populations.

A deep dive into President Trump’s rollback of a bedrock environmental law shows the extent to which the administration is dramatically narrowing the scope of government reviews for major projects by setting aside consideration of climate change and other impacts.

As the coronavirus creeps through the human population, causing social and economic turmoil, farmers discard vast quantities of food that they are abruptly unable to sell in the upended economy.

How do we talk about the vital work that we do and what is happening in California water against the context of what is happening in America: a pandemic, a crisis in governance, and the exposure of systemic racism that led to the murder of George Floyd and too many Americans of color over the last 30 years?

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Board of Directors has appointed Clifford C. Chan as general manager.

Today, at an event at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman Mary B. Neumayr joined federal, state, tribal, local and water sector partners to announce the National Water Reuse Action Plan: Collaborative Implementation (Version 1).

Turns out President Donald Trump is no match for anotherCalifornia drought. Less than a week after Trump told SanJoaquin Valley farmers in Bakersfield that he was taking boldsteps to increase their water supply, his administrationannounced Tuesday farmers on the west side of the San JoaquinValley may only receive about 15 percent of their contractedwater supply for the upcoming growing season.

Gov. Gavin Newsom may be piloting a lifeboat that will rescue the sinking California Delta. Or he may be in water over his head on a doomed mission.

Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt joined President Donald Trump and other federal officials in Bakersfield, California for the signing of a Presidential Memorandum supporting more water development and delivery in California.

The first update of the Delta voluntary settlement agreements (VSA) last winter had an estimated cost of $1.1 billion over 15 years.

A new system for treating agricultural drainage water in the Delta could also help rebuild subsided islands.

Soon after taking office last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to break through the “status quo” of California water politics, plagued by decades of litigation and impasse.

A black lab trots dutifully behind as Randy Fiorini proudly points out the drip irrigation lines running along the base of his walnut trees.

On January 3, State agencies released a draft Water Resilience Portfolio which outlines more than 100 integrated actionable recommendations in four broad areas that are intended to help California cope with more extreme droughts and floods, rising temperatures, declining fish populations, aging infrastructure and other challenges.

Given California’s international leadership in addressing climate change, it isn’t surprising that voters will be asked this November to approve billions of dollars in bonds to help the state become more resilient.

Since July, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and State Water Contractors have engaged in fruitless negotiations over how to pay for a single-tunnel Delta Conveyance Facility (DCF is the new term now that the twin-tunnel “WaterFix” is gone). On December 23, right before the holidays, DWR made their 6th proposal to the State WaterContractors with a major shift in approach.

The Trump administration has stripped away its regulatory authority, threatened to cut its highway funding and called its dirty waterways a "significant public health concern."

House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona wants his committee to give him subpoena authority for multiple possible investigations, but California Democrat Jim Costa may vote against that as the panel considers whether Interior Secretary David Bernhardt improperly influenced a decision to send more water to his district.

Delta water exporters are lauding the new biological opinions released by the Trump administration and the state's new regulations known as "Trump lite" by many environmentalists. Water exporters are praising the new rules for their use of real-time operations, as opposed to the old rules that were "calendar based." It's great PR messaging, but lousy policy.

The UC-D Watershed Center counters crops per drop calculations with jobs per drop calculations and then makes a rather large leap to their conclusion ... we need more water markets - not rules and regulations.

California officials said Thursday they will sue the federal government over proposed rules managing the state’s scarce water, arguing its conclusions are not scientifically adequate and fall short of protecting species and the state’s interests.

California’s water policy can be complex, and—let’s be honest—often polarizing. Water decisions frequently get distilled into unhelpful narratives of fish versus farms, north versus south, or urban versus rural. Climate change-driven droughts and flooding threats, as well as our divided political climate, compound these challenges.

For decades, Nevada has fought to update the 1922-vintage Colorado River Compact so that our state can receive its fair allotment of water from the river.

The Department of the Interior wants us to know that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has had nothing to do with a contract that will give one of his former lobbying clients, the giant Westlands Water District, permanent access to lucrative federal irrigation water supplies.

In an effort to expedite its water right permitting process, the State Water Resources Control Board announced today it has streamlined requirements for applicants seeking to divert surface water to underground storage during floods and other high flow conditions.

As plans for a single tunnel in the Delta take shape, a new committee has been created to inform planners of the Delta Conveyance Project’s (DCP) expected impacts across a broad range of interests.

Stockton is a city simultaneously in recovery and under stress. The municipality of about 300,000, some 50 miles south of Sacramento and 80 miles east of San Francisco on California’s extraordinary inland delta, became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy in 2012 (Detroit followed in 2013).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) recently ruled that California does not need to provide water quality certification for the Middle Fork American Hydroelectric Project (Middle Fork Project) in Placer and El Dorado counties, operated by Placer County Water Agency (PCWA).

In a devastating blow to the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary last week, the Trump administration eliminated science-based protections for five of this ecosystem’s endangered fish species.

A draft report by the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded in July that giving farmers in California’s Central Valley more water would harm salmon, steelhead trout and killer whales.

The DCA Board of Directors today announced members of DCA Stakeholder Engagement Committee (SEC), approved by the DCA Board after recommendations were made by an Ad Hoc Selection Committee.

In a move that would boost water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley agriculture and Southern California cities, federal fishery agencies are weakening decade-old endangered species protections for some of the state’s most imperiled native fish populations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t flinched in fighting President Trump when it comes to loosening pollution rules in a smoggy state or punishing immigrants seeking protection.

President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out an aggressive plan Tuesday to ship more water from the Delta to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, a move that’s certain to trigger lawsuits by environmentalists concerned about endangered fish species.

The U.S. government today is announcing plans to alter operations of California’s water system, potentially resulting in less water flowing through the Delta into San Francisco Bay and more to cities and San Joaquin Valley farms.

California is providing health care to undocumented immigrants while President Donald Trump wants to build a border wall, and Gov. Gavin Newsom circumvented the White House with a side deal on auto emissions standards.

Water is at the center of California’s economic and environmental health. The need to maintain reliable water supply for California’s farms, families and cities while protecting the environment has been at the forefront of our minds as we have worked to review and finalize a new operations plan for the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.

We are all sinners. At least, that’s the impression Mark Arax leaves in The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California. What’s bold, and distinguishes this book from others about California, is that Arax grapples with a history that we’re still in the midst of creating, rather than reflecting on sins long past and easily put away as the transgressions of others.

On October 22 the Trump Administration is expected to release new Endangered Species Act permits, known as biological opinions, that are almost certain to significantly weaken and/or eliminate existing federal protections for salmon and other endangered species in California’s Bay-Delta watershed.

Just how far will Gov. Gavin Newsom go in his high-profile fight with the Trump administration over environmental protections?

California’s senators have asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s watchdog to investigate whether the agency abused its enforcement powers when it accused San Francisco of improperly dumping waste into the ocean.

The report was prepared in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s solicitation for comments, recommendations, and proposals for creating a water resilience portfolio for the State of California (Executive Order N-10-19).

“Mother nature is changing fast, and we need to change along with her,” California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot told an audience of climate scientists, water managers, and other stakeholders at a climate change conference on September 17 in Sacramento.

The Trump administration has retreated on a plan to push more water through the Delta this fall after protests from California officials on the harmful impacts on endangered Chinook salmon and other fish.

A September 19, 2019 Los Angeles Times Op Ed urged that Governor Gavin Newsom sign Senate Bill 1. One of the reasons given was that by affirming the Endangered Species Act protections in the bill, Newsom would signal that standards for the Voluntary Agreements on Delta flows would be kept high:

Last week, the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) held a public hearing to review proposed changes to how spending decisions on the maintenance of Delta levees are made, and the plan — known as the Delta Levee Investment Strategy (DLIS) — has drawn criticism from several sources.

Contra Costa Environmental Health says if you plan on enjoying the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this holiday weekend, to watch out for dangerous algae blooms.

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is continuing to work on the environmental planning and permitting to modernize State Water Project infrastructure in the Delta.

The impacts of climate change on water use and how the state can address them represent a significant change in the new 5-year update of the California Water Plan.

California has a vast water supply not just in its lakes, rivers, and estuaries, but also underground. For years, California’s cities and farms have depended on this unseen resource, especially in the southern part of the state where rainfall is low, surface water is scarce, and demand is high. In fact, underground aquifers provide about 40 percent of California’s water supply in a normal year and significantly more in dry years.

Can a big city be truly sustainable in the age of climate change? Los Angeles is trying to find out.

Gov. Gavin Newsom started his Valley tour Tuesday night (July 23), appearing at a fundraiser in Coalinga at the business of a noted Republican donor.

At the July meeting of Metropolitan’s Water Planning and Stewardship Committee meeting, the bulk of the meeting was taken up by a visit from Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot who discussed the Governor’s water resilience portfolio and reiterated the Newsom Administration’s support for modernized conveyance in the Delta.

The California Water Plan (Water Plan) is the State’s strategic plan for sustainably managing and developing water resources for current and future generations.

The Portfolio Recommendations Group is an ad hoc gathering of leaders from over 80 urban water districts, ag water districts, tribes, environmental justice groups, business groups, environmental groups, flood agencies, fire agencies and watershed groups.

The Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA) is a Joint Powers Authority created in 2018 by Metropolitan Water District, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Kern County Water Agency, and the State Water Contractors.

Want to be safe from earthquakes in California? You’d need to endure summer scorchers, winter flood threats and full-time politicians. But temblors don’t threaten people living in Sacramento.

Groundwater overdraft is a major problem globally and has been a persistent and growing problem in California for decades.

After rushing forward on a plan to send more water to California’s Central Valley, the Trump Administration has unexpectedly hit the brakes and ordered the work already done by federal scientists to be completed by a different team.

A project to pump billions of gallons of water out from under the Mojave Desert and sell it to people in Southern California could be slowed by a bill approved for the first time on Thursday by the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

The San Joaquin Valley—California’s largest agricultural region—has the largest groundwater deficit in the state. However, water scarcity is not experienced equally across the valley. Some areas receive abundant surface water to support cropland irrigation and drinking water supplies.

Two strong earthquakes, a day apart, jolted many residents in the Golden State to think about preparing for the so-called Big One in their backyard. But as many Californians sought tips for preparing for an earthquake, state insurance officials said considering earthquake insurance was an often-overlooked part of the equation.

The battle over the state’s eminent domain plan for the Delta was reignited in June, ending with Sacramento County seeking a restraining order against DWR.

Three years ago, presidential candidate Donald Trump got right to the heart of Central Valley agriculture’s fight over its most precious resource.

A coalition of 55 conservation, fishing, recreation, water policy, and environmental justice groups from throughout California, representing hundreds of thousands of Californians, sent a letter to state officials today thanking the Governor for his “…leadership in tackling California’s water issues.”

On June 10, 2019, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) began extensive geotechnical drilling to evaluate a single tunnel project in the WaterFix project alignment. The drilling is currently suspended, pending resolution of a Temporary Restraining Order issued by Sacramento Superior Court at the request of Sacramento County. The work is being done without required county permits to protect groundwater.

On June 10, 2019, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) began extensive geotechnical drilling to evaluate a single tunnel project in the WaterFix project alignment.

When scholars of California history and California water review the decisions our state leaders made to plan for the impacts from climate change, they will look back at May 2, 2019 as the pivotal date in our state’s water planning processes.

A review of 170 years of water-related successes in California suggests that most successes can be traced directly to past mistakes.

Supervisor Skip Thomson views the decision to end the twin tunnels Delta project as a major battle won, but warns the water war continues.

In his first 100 days in office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly set about launching parts of the progressive agenda he promised during his campaign.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a plan to cut back on the use of water from the Colorado River, which serves 40 million people in the U.S. West.

The Interior Department has acknowledged that Secretary David Bernhardt’s staff intentionally left controversial meetings with representatives of fossil fuel, timber and water interests off his public calendar, citing “internal protocol” governing his schedules.

California is leading the world when it comes to climate action and environmental sustainability. The fifth largest economy in the world is already deriving more than half of its energy on a daily basis from renewable energy. In terms of electrification and electrifying transportation, that movement is happening and being led in California. About half of electric vehicle sales in the country are generated here.

When it comes to California water policy, the federal-state relationship has always been both strained and challenging. That intergovernmental tension harkens back at least to the Reclamation Act of 1902. In section 8 of this iconic federal statute that transformed the American West, Congress declared that the federal government “shall proceed in conformity with” state water rights law.

For years, David Bernhardt worked for a law and lobbying firm to try to influence the federal government on behalf of his clients. Now the firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, is seeing a big payday — only after Bernhardt left.

Governor Newsom sent reverberations through the California water community when he announced during his state of the state address: “I do not support the Water Fix as currently configured,” said Governor Newsom. “Meaning, I do not support the twin tunnels. But we can build on the important work that’s already been done. That’s why I do support a single tunnel.”

Political leaders from the valley are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to closely scrutinize new water quality standards proposed for the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta.

Attorneys for counties, DWR agree that downsized California WaterFix still calls for massive intakes, industrial construction zones along the Sacramento River.

Governor Newsom inherited a mess from Governor Brown with the California High Speed Rail project.

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is a major source of water for cities and farms across the state, and a major source of water conflict.

Governor Newsom announced in his State of the State speech that he will scrap a controversial $19 billion plan to build two tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to carry water southward.

California’s wet winter has dumped an estimated 18 trillion gallons of rain in February alone. But much of it is simply going down the drain.

L.A. Times writer George Skelton writes about what he calls a grand compromise with the twin tunnels proposed under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. As he says, "The battle has been over whether to bore two monster water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta or to build none at all. The solution: Duh. One tunnel."

It’s becoming clear that the voluntary settlement agreements presented to the State Water Board last December as part of the so-called “grand bargain” were nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

A potential grand compromise to settle a decades-long water fight has been obvious for years but blown off. Now Gov. Gavin Newsom is forcing all combatants to consider it seriously. California’s water future hinges on the ultimate deal.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to downsize a controversial Delta waterway project is a step in the right direction, but more progress needs to be made to satisfy critics who say even the modified proposal does more harm than good, Rep. John Garamendi – whose district includes communities that would be affected by the project – said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with the Daily Republic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, diving into one of California’s most contentious water issues, said Tuesday he wants to downsize the Delta tunnels project.

Facing pressure from farm interests, Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared poised Monday to replace Felicia Marcus as chair of the State Water Resources Control Board

Governor Gavin Newsom announced several key appointments to help tackle some of the most urgent challenges facing California, as outlined in his State of the State Address earlier today — meeting California’s diverse water needs, boosting economic development across the state and bolstering the education system.

American Canyon will continue looking to the proposed, massive Sites reservoir in Colusa County to someday help slake its thirst.

Recognizing the failure of the existing biological opinions issued a decade ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for Delta smelt and by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for salmon, the Bureau of Reclamation released a new biological assessment which serves as the basis for new biological opinions that will be released within 135 days.

Despite many high priority issues on his plate, one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first tests will be how he deals with California’s water challenges and opportunities. Unfortunately, in the last days of his term Gov. Jerry Brown made a bad bargain with the Trump administration and special interests. It’s yet another mess for the new governor to mop up.

While campaigning for president in 2016, Donald Trump promised a cheering Fresno crowd he would be “opening up the water” for Central Valley farmers who’d been victimized by “insane” environmental rules to protect fish.

The Bureau of Reclamation released late last week the Biological Assessment for the re-initiation of consultation on the coordinated long-term operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project.

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated David Bernhardt, the former top lobbyist for a powerful Fresno-based irrigation district, to run the Department of the Interior, raising renewed questions about whether he’d try to steer more California water to his former clients.

Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, introduced legislation today that will help protect California’s precious water supply and ensure the vitality of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by requiring more legislative oversight and public scrutiny of the state’s twin-tunnels project known as WaterFix.

The Bureau of Reclamation, the Interior Department's Western water bureaucracy that saw its dam‐building heyday in the 1960s, has risen in stature once again in the Trump administration.

On January 31, the Trump Administration is scheduled to release its new proposal for the operations of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project under the Endangered Species Act (known as a biological assessment).

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Creek, has been appointed to four key subcommittees on the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which he was already a senior member of.

As his term as governor drew to a close last month, Jerry Brown brokered a historic agreement among farms and cities to surrender billions of gallons of water to help ailing fish species.

In the final weeks of Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, his appointees on a state board ordered some powerful water districts to cut their historic river diversions to protect endangered salmon populations.

The new person in charge of delivering water to one in 17 Americans has two big goals: seeing through a controversial public works project to build two new California water tunnels and ensuring her agency is represented by a more diverse group of people.

The foundational agreement between DWR and the Bureau announced on December 12 is the Addendum to the Coordinated Operation Agreement Central Valley Project/State Water Project.