<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48055" dir="ltr"><a href="http://eastbaytimes.ca.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=0f5d066d5" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48223" class="">http://eastbaytimes.ca.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=0f5d066d5</a></div><div style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 20px; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48144"><span style="font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48145">EDITORIAL</span></div><div style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 10px; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 30px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48146"><span style="font-style: italic;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48147">Block Trump plan to pump more Delta water south </span></div><div style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 10px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48148"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48149">Few things are more important to the future of the Bay Area and Northern California than the quality of our water supply.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48150"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48151">And here comes the latest threat.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48152"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48153">At the behest of the Central Valley’s billionaire agribusiness operators, the Trump admin-istration on Dec. 29 proposed pumping more water south from the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta despite the potentially devastating longterm impact on the water Silicon Valley and the East Bay count on.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48154"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48155">California has to block this effort to “maximize water deliveries,” especially with the prospect of climate change further threatening the health of the Delta.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48156"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48157">The State Water Resources Control Board is responsible for ensuring that any pumping from the Delta complies with California environmental laws. It can block even federal plans if it finds they would would damage the largest estuary west of the Mississippi.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48158"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48159">The board should deny the Trump administration request.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48160"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48161">Central Valley agribusiness likes to argue that sending more water south is prioritizing “people before fish,” since the sharp decline in Delta smelt populations has been cited to block increased pumping. But the Delta smelt are the canary in the coal mine.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48162"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48163">Every scientific study of the Delta has yielded the same result: The only way to preserve its health and water quality is to allowmore fresh water to run through it, not less.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48164"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48165">This same principle of Delta health argues against Gov. Jerry Brown’s separate, $17 billion twin-tunnel Delta plan to create capacity for greater flows to the Central Valley and Southern California.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48166"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48167">The federal proposal arrived</span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48168"> as a Bureau of Reclamation notice of intent to review Delta water flows. It outlines four goals: maximize water supply delivery; review and consider modifications to regulatory requirements; evaluate stressors on fish and beneficial non-flow measures to decrease stressors; and evaluate potential changes in laws, regulations and infrastructure that may benefit power marketability.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48169"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48170">Trump won big support from Central Valley farmers in 2016 when he promised to solve the water problem, saying, “It is so ridiculous, where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea.”</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48171"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48172">But there is a wide-ranging value in allowing sufficient flows of water from California’s snow-covered mountains to the ocean. The water boosts groundwater tables — the very ones Central Valley farmers have overdrawn to a degree that land there is sinking at a rate of almost a foot a year, damaging bridges, roads and even the California Aqueduct. Allowing more water to flow through the Delta also preserves all manner of wildlife beyond the Delta smelt.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48173"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48174">Once upon a time, Republicans believed in helping protect the environment. It was President Nixon who signed the Environmental Protection Act into law in 1970, and it was President George H.W. Bush who in 1992 signed a bill co-written by Martinez Rep. George Miller making restoring fish life in San Francisco Bay and the Delta a priority.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48175"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48176">California must block this plan to curry favor with Trump supporters at the expense of the Delta and the communities that now rely on its water.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48177"><img src="http://eastbaytimes.ca.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/california/eastbaytimes/20180108/0108000xa009_w-or9.pdf.0/img/Image_1.jpg" width="185" height="160" style="margin: 1.75px 20px; padding: 0px; max-width: 85%; min-height: auto; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48178" data-id="eb33fad1-2bf4-2762-5922-9d0ba60921ef"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48179"></span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48180"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48181">The Trump administration on Dec. 29proposed pumping more water south from the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta despite the potentially devastating longterm impact on the water Silicon Valley and the East Bay count on.</span></div><div style="margin: 10px 20px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48182"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48183">STAFF FILE PHOTO</span></div><div class="signature" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515431668685_48062"><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>