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line-height:19px; margin:0 0 4px 0;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;word-break:break-word;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_51408">How Trump’s pumping plan is dividing California over water – again</h2> <div class="card-description" style="font-size:11px;line-height:15px;color:#999;word-break:break-word;">The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants to ship more water south through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, pitting ...</div> </td> <td style="text-align:right;padding:16px 12px 16px 0;"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </a></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_51366"><br></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50900"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; line-height: 1; color: rgb(0, 147, 208); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; font-size: 14px; display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase; min-width: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; background-position: 0px 0px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50901"><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 147, 208); text-decoration: none; display: block; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50902">WATER & DROUGHT</a></h2><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'McClatchy Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.3; color: inherit; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px; font-size: 45px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50903">How Trump’s pumping plan is dividing California over water – again</h3></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; margin-left: 80px; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50904"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; border: none; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; padding: 0px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50905"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.3; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50906"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50907">BY DALE KASLER AND RYAN SABALOW</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.3; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(158, 156, 161);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50908"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; text-transform: none; font-style: italic;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50909"><a href="mailto:dkasler@sacbee.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50910">dkasler@sacbee.com</a></span></div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; width: 33px; float: left; top: 0px; ; z-index: 1; margin-left: 0;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50911"><div gigid="showShareBarUI" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: none; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; outline: none; vertical-align: bottom; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 1; visibility: visible; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50912"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: none; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; outline: none; vertical-align: bottom; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 1; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50913"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; 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border: none; line-height: 1.3em; outline: none; vertical-align: bottom; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 1; width: 48px; float: none; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; min-height: 48px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50924"></div></div></div></div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50925"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(117, 117, 117);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50926"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50927">January 26, 2018 03:55 AM</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(117, 117, 117);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50928"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50929">Updated 5 hours 10 minutes ago </span></div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50930"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50931"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50932"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50933">They gathered this week at Sacramento’s federal building on Capitol Mall, carrying protest signs and vowing to resist the Trump administration’s plan to pump more of Northern California’s water through the Delta to the southern half of the state. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50934">The government “wants to suck our lifeblood dry,” said Noah Oppenheim, leader of a group representing commercial fishermen. An ally hoisted a sign that said, “Don’t pump the Delta to extinction.” Dania Rose Colegrove, a Hoopa Valley Tribe member, said the Trump proposal would suck more water from the Trinity River, a place her tribe considers sacred, to keep wealthy farmers’ crops growing hundreds of miles south.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50935">The scene couldn’t have been more different the following night in Los Banos, on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, where farmers gathered at a community center to voice their support for the Trump administration’s proposal. They see it as Trump making good on a <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/election/article80491942.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50936">campaign promise in Fresno </a>in 2016, when he derided efforts to “protect a certain kind of 3-inch fish” – the nearly extinct Delta smelt – and promised to bring more water through the Delta to agriculture.<iframe style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 700px; min-height: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; border-style: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; display: block !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50937"></iframe></div><div style="box-sizing: content-box; overflow: hidden; min-height: 357px; transition: height 0s; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: 550px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50938"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important; position: relative; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50939"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin-bottom: 0px !important; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 10px !important; text-align: center !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; min-height: 21px !important; line-height: 21px !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50940">ADVERTISING</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50941"><iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 550px !important; min-height: 310px !important; border-width: 0px !important; overflow: hidden !important; float: none !important; max-height: 310px !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50942"></iframe></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 9px !important; color: rgb(170, 170, 170) !important; text-align: right !important; padding: 1px 4px 1px 0px !important; min-height: 26px !important; line-height: 26px !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50943"><a href="http://inread-experience.teads.tv/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: none !important; color: rgb(170, 170, 170) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border: none !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important; box-shadow: none !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50944"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; box-shadow: none !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important; color: rgb(121, 187, 233) !important;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50945">inRead</span> invented by Teads</a></div></div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50946">“I finally have some optimism,” said Mitch Coit, a grower in the Los Banos area.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50947"><iframe src="http://x.email.sacbee.com/ats/url.aspx?cr=663&wu=177" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" width="100%" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; min-height: 233px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50948"></iframe></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50949">Nothing sharpens the political divide in California like a fight over water. Just before New Year’s, the U.S. Bureau of Administration announced it would try to <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article192577634.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50950">“maximize water deliveries”</a> to the agricultural districts that belong to the federal government’s Central Valley Project. A series of public comment hearings this week, in Sacramento, Los Banos and Chico, illustrated the vast gulf between the warring factions.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50951">In Sacramento on Tuesday, nearly three-dozen environmentalists, tribal representatives and others held a brief protest outside the federal building, then marched inside to blast the plan in front of Bureau of Reclamation employees. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50952">They believe moving more water through the Delta pumps would bring more environmental ruin to the troubled estuary and kill more Delta smelt, Chinook salmon and other endangered fish species. The harm would spread as far north as the Oregon border, where rivers would get sucked dry to feed the Delta pumps, they said.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50953">Gary Mulcahy, 63, a Winnemem Wintu Tribe member from Shasta County, nearly broke down as he described a salmon population decimated by water shortages. “Now, you could sit there for hours and not see a single salmon come back,” he said. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50954">Mocking President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, Mulcahy wore a red hat that read, “Make America Sacred Again.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50955">The Trump administration’s plan, which will take about a year to finalize, is based in large part on a 2016 law signed by former President Barack Obama. The vaguely worded law creates some additional protections for the Delta but also directs pump operators to deliver more water when possible to customers of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Many environmental groups condemn the law, but its backers, including California’s U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said it served as a compromise between environmental and water-supply needs. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50956">Reclamation officials said they won’t run roughshod over the environment in their effort to bring more water south. Rather, they want to take a fresh look at Delta waterways to see if there’s a way to help farmers while still protecting fish.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50957">“Both sides are struggling,” said Austin Ewell, a recent Trump appointee who is the Interior Department’s deputy assistant secretary for water and science. “The current system is not necessarily working for whatever party.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50958">Reclamation’s effort comes at a pivotal time. Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to announce soon whether to <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/delta/article194935194.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50959">downsize the Delta tunnels project</a>, his $17-billion plan designed to improve fish habitats and water deliveries by rerouting how water reaches the state and federal pumping stations. Meanwhile, two federal agencies that oversee the Delta’s struggling fish populations have launched a review of decade-old pumping regulations, and California’s State Water Resources Control Board is examining the Delta’s water quality with an eye toward reducing pumping.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50960">Where does all that leave Reclamation’s plan to “maximize” water deliveries? In Los Banos, farmers said they expect California officials, who have fought Trump on everything from immigration to climate change, to use powerful state laws to limit the effect of the Reclamation proposal or halt it altogether. State officials have vowed to protect California’s fish and wildlife as they scrutinize Reclamation’s plan.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50961">“We’re seeing more evidence of a state that’s willing to backstop environmental protections and push back on any federal intrusion, particularly from the Trump administration,” said Cannon Michael, a farmer from the Los Banos area and chairman of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, a major valley water agency.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50962">Still, the mood among valley farmers and their leaders was one of cautious optimism. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, told the crowd gathered in Los Banos that Reclamation’s plan could reverse more than 20 years of declining water deliveries, brought on by court decisions and regulations, that have devastated valley farm communities.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50963">“Places like Los Banos, Dos Palos, Mendota have felt the burden of the lack of water,” the congressman said. “It breaks your heart.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50964">Among farmers, the Reclamation proposal affirms their belief that they have a friend in Washington in Trump.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50965">“He has at least come out and said, ‘We’re going to do something about the water,’<span data-value="133" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50966"> </span>” said Joe Del Bosque, a prominent valley farmer from Firebaugh. “We’ve been through years with no water.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 35px 0px; font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50967"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-size: 17px; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50968">Dale Kasler: <a href="tel:916-321-1066" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50969">916-321-1066</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/dakasler" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50970">@dakasler</a></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 1px; min-height: 1px; font-style: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-family: sans-serif; overflow: hidden;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50971"><a href="https://twitter.com/dakasler" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50972"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50973">Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article196723524.html#storylink=cpy</a></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50974"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="signature" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516980882461_50760"><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></body></html>