Sacramento, California– The Trump administration is making good on its promise to send more water to California farmers in the state’s crop-rich Central Valley.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Thursday a new plan to operate the Central Valley Project, a vast system of pumps, dams and canals that directs water south from the state’s wetter north. This follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January calling for more water to flow to farmers, arguing that the state is wasting the precious resource in the name of protecting endangered fish species.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the plan will help the federal government “strengthen California’s water resiliency.” It takes effect on Friday.
But California officials and environmental groups criticized the move, saying sending more water to farmland could threaten water delivery to the rest of the state and would harm salmon and other fish.
Most of the country Water in the northBut most of its people are in the south. The federally run Central Valley Project works alongside the state-run Central Valley Water Project, which sends water to cities that supply 27 million Californians. The systems transport water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an estuary that provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife including salmon and delta smelt.
It’s important for the two systems to work together, Carla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said in a statement. She warned that the Trump administration’s plan could limit the state’s ability to send water to cities and farmers. That’s because the state may be required to allocate more water to protect species if the federal project sends more water to farms.
Pumping more water will result in more Delta smelt and juvenile salmon dying from leeches in the pumping system, and once the temperature warms, harmful algae will develop that poses a danger to fish, wildlife, pets and people, said Barbara Barrigan-Barrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta. She said this could have economic implications.
“When you destroy water quality and separate it from the land, you also destroy property value,” she said. “No one wants to live near a polluted, stinking swamp.”
The Bureau of Reclamation denied that the changes would harm the environment or endangered species.
The Central Valley Project sends water primarily to farms, with a much smaller amount going to cities and industrial uses. Water from the Central Valley Project irrigates nearly a third of California’s agriculture, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Westlands Water District, one of the Central Valley Project’s largest water use areas, welcomed the decision. The project “will help ensure our farmers have the water they need to support local communities and the nation’s food supply, while also protecting California’s wildlife,” General Manager Allison Febo said in a statement.
But Vance Stablen, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, said in a statement that salmon protections are already weak and some runs that depend on the water are on the verge of extinction. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom called for “a lawsuit challenging this illegal federal move.”
During Trump’s first term, he allowed more water to be directed to the Central Valley, a move Newsom took Fight in courtSaying it would push delta smelt, chinook salmon and rainbow trout to extinction. The Biden administration changed course, adopting its own water plan in 2024 that environmental groups said represented a modest improvement. Newsom did not immediately comment Thursday on the new decision.
Trump renewed his criticism of the state’s water policies after the outbreak of fires in the Los Angeles area last January, some of which… Fire hydrants ran out. The Central Valley Project does not supply water to Los Angeles.
The president called his January executive order “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Extreme Environmentalism to Save Water for Southern California.”
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Golden reported from Seattle.