Latest news with #waterpolicy
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's quiet truce on California water
SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump promised to break California's water rules wide open. So far, he's mostly working within them. Five months after Trump issued a pair of directives for federal agencies to overturn state and Biden-era rules limiting water deliveries, the federal government has done no such thing. Instead, it's quietly increasing water flows following the very rules Trump once railed against — at least for now. It's a sharp contrast to Trump's otherwise confrontational posture toward California and climate policy. In just the last week, he rescinded the state's authority to phase out gas-powered vehicles and sent the National Guard into Los Angeles over Gov. Gavin Newsom's objections. It's also a sharp contrast to Trump's campaign rhetoric, when he vowed to force Newsom to reverse a lawsuit blocking his first-term effort to loosen environmental protections in the state's main water hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But Trump seems mollified now, declaring victory over the state at a White House event last week. The president brought up the familiar theme of water flowing out to the Pacific Ocean instead of being used in farms and cities, called it 'ridiculous' and declared of the water: 'We got them to take it now.' What's changed? For one, California had a wet winter, which tends to smooth over political differences. And the Trump administration suffered an early headline-grabbing debacle in February when it dumped summer irrigation water from Central Valley dams in a misguided effort to send it to fires in Los Angeles. Newsom has also aligned himself more with Trump on water, as when he jilted Delta-area Democrats last month in pushing to expedite a tunnel to move more supplies from Northern to Southern California. More substantively, some of the water districts that might be expected to agitate for Trump to overturn Biden-era water rules concede that they actually allow more deliveries than Trump's version. 'Our goal really is to try and implement some of the adaptive management and other actions that are in the [Biden-era rules] that provide some flexibility to benefit water supply and the fishery as well,' said Thaddeus Bettner, the executive director of the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, a group of municipal and agricultural water districts in the northern Central Valley. So even though Trump's January directives gave federal officials the option to redo the Biden-era rules, they haven't done that so far — avoiding both lawsuits and negative headlines. The January orders also directed federal water agencies to write a report within 90 days on how to deliver on Trump's promises, but the White House is keeping that quiet, as well, declining to release it publicly. 'Less than a month into his second term, President Trump turned on the water to prevent another tragedy like the recent California wildfires, and he has urged Democrats like Gavin Newsom to adopt policies that better maintain our nation's forests,' White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an email. 'He will continue to protect America's abundant natural resources, and updates to our water policy will come from him.' Environmental groups in the sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, however, aren't buying the quiet approach. They say the Trump administration is still violating endangered species rules, pointing to examples when federal officials pumped more water out of the Delta than state officials, killing or injuring protected species of salmon and trout in the process. 'Reclamation's behavior is cause for extreme concern for the health of the Bay-Delta and for the communities and people who care about and depend on this ecosystem,' the groups wrote in a letter last month to state water officials. (Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson Mary Lee Knecht said the agency 'continues to operate the Central Valley Project to maximize water supply and hydropower in full compliance' with the Biden-era rules.) There are a couple of opportunities coming up for Trump to make more of a splash. He has yet to nominate a Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, who could sway the agency one way or the other. And on Tuesday, state and federal lawyers are due to update a judge on whether they want to continue the lawsuit Newsom lodged against Trump in 2020. Water agencies that have been mostly laudatory of Trump are still restive. Westlands Water District's general manager, Allison Febbo, called the Trump administration's latest projected increase in summer water allocations, from 50 to 55 percent, 'disappointing' given that reservoirs are filled to the brim. 'The operations quagmire that has contributed to the self-inflicted water crisis we have in this state, and reconfirmed by the Biden administration before leaving office, are still wreaking havoc on the water projects,' Johnny Amaral, chief of external affairs at the Friant Water Authority, said in a text message. 'Every minute that goes by is a lost opportunity to end the crisis, and the clock is ticking.' Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO's California Climate newsletter.
E&E News
05-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Calif. lawmaker weakens Trump-proofing bill on ‘fraudulent' dam releases
SACRAMENTO, California — A Democratic state lawmaker is weakening her proposal to penalize federal officials for releasing water from dams under false pretenses in a deal with water agencies, farmers and business groups who had previously opposed the bill. What happened: David Burruto, a spokesperson for Assemblymember Diane Papan, confirmed Thursday that she has agreed to significantly amend her AB 1146 , which was a response to the Trump administration dumping water from two Central Valley dams in January and falsely claiming it would help fight the Los Angeles fires. Papan has agreed to remove most of the enforcement measures from her bill, according to a Thursday email sent by industry and agricultural groups to assemblymembers and confirmed by Burruto. Those include provisions that would have given state water regulators interim relief power against dam releases deemed fraudulent and required federal officials or water agencies that get water delivered from the federal government to pay fines of up to $10,000 a day. Advertisement As a result, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau, the Association of California Water Agencies and other farming and water groups previously in opposition will no longer fight the bill, according to the email.
Washington Post
15-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
DeSantis signs a bill making Florida the 2nd state to ban fluoride from its water system
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure Thursday prohibiting local governments from adding fluoride to their water systems, making it the second state in the country after Utah to implement a statewide ban on the mineral . DeSantis signed the bill at a public event in Dade City, Florida, over the concerns of dentists and public health advocates.
