In a November 2024 article in Politico, Tom Birmingham, the former general manager of the giant Central Valley Westlands Water District said “(a)t least as it related to water, I think Gov. Newsom and former President Trump have very similar objectives.  They are not dramatically different.” 

It might surprise many Californians that the governor who styles himself as a leader of the Trump resistance is seen by the famously aggressive Mr. Birmingham – long quietly referred to as the Darth Vader of California water – as implementing water policies so similar to those of Mr. Trump.  That statement is not, however, a surprise to those of us in the salmon fishing community.  For the past six years, Governor Newsom has compiled the most anti-salmon and anti-environmental record on Bay-Delta issues of any governor in 40 years.   

Some governors don’t make water issues a priority.  That’s not the case with Governor Newsom, who has maintained a strong focus on water issues since he took office in 2019. 

Here some key moments from Governor Newsom’s record on Bay-Delta salmon issues:

• Getting Rid of an Effective State Board Chair: One of the first Bay-Delta actions taken by Governor Newsom was his decision not to reappoint Felicia Marcus as chair of the State Water Board.  I’ll be honest.  Initially, when water agencies launched a campaign against Chair Marcus, I didn’t take the effort seriously.  True – Chair Marcus had actually done her job by leading the State Board to adopt stronger Bay-Delta flow standards for the San Joaquin River basin in December of 2018.  That certainly angered water users.  But those standards were a classic compromise between the status quo favored by water agencies and a significantly higher flow requirement favored by salmon advocates and suggested by science.  Chair Marcus was seen as the most effective Water Board chair in decades.  But Governor Newsom bowed to the pressure and got rid of her.  The message that sent has not been lost on the remaining members of the Water Board….
• A Paralyzed Water Board: Under Governor Newsom, the Water Board has been paralyzed on Bay-Delta and salmon issues.  It has failed to implement the flow standards adopted in December 2018, even after they were upheld in state court.  Six years after their adoption, the Board has not implemented those Phase 1 standards or adopted another approach.  They also have not set flow standards for Phase 2 of the Bay-Delta Plan update process – setting flow rules for the Delta and the Sacramento River.   As the Bay-Delta and its species crashed – the Board has failed to update a Bay-Delta Plan flow agreements that were adopted in 1995.  (By way of context, Nikoa Jokic, NBA veteran and arguably the best basketball player on the planet, was born in 1995.) 
• Flawed Voluntary Agreements: Governor Newsom has long supported the so-called Bay-Delta Voluntary Agreements.  There’s nothing wrong with a negotiated agreement on Bay-Delta flow issues – if it reflects real science and protects the environment.  But it doesn’t take a biologist to understand why the VA effort has failed.  A few years ago, Governor Newsom’s Secretaries of Resources and CalEPA did something remarkable.  They took over these negotiations and threw out the advocates for the environment – leaving no one but water agencies in the room.  The Newsom Administration decided to exclude any advocate for a healthy Bay-Delta from the fishing, environmental, environmental justice and tribal communities.  Imagine if a governor were to decide to settle a high profile labor strike.  Then imagine that he were to bar all labor representatives from negotiations and then told industry leaders that he’d support whatever they come up with.  It’s not difficult to imagine how fair that “voluntary agreement” would be to labor.  That’s what Governor Newsom did with the Bay-Delta VAs.  (I’ll address the long list of fatal flaws of the VAs in future posts.)  
• Vetoing SB 1: In 2019, the state legislature passed SB 1, a bill to give state agencies new tools to protect the California environment – including salmon – from President Trump’s policies.  Governor Newsom vetoed the legislation.
• Waving Salmon Standards: in 2021, 2022 and 2023, during the drought – and even after it was over – Governor Newsom and his Water Board repeatedly waived requirements to protect the Bay-Delta and its salmon runs. 
• Nearly Identical Newsom and Trump Endangered Species Flow Requirements: In March of 2020, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife adopted a “Incidental Take Permit” under the California Endangered Species Act for the State Water Project.  That permit was based on – and largely identical to – the ESA Biological Opinions (BO) issued by the Trump Administration.  The National Marine Fisheries Service BO literally gave the Bureau of Reclamation permission to kill every juvenile salmon in the Sacramento River for 3 years running.  (Nearly all Chinook live for 3 years or less.   So authorizing a water project to kill all salmon for 3 years is an extinction plan.)
• Failing to Stop Lethal Temperatures on the Sacramento River: When the Trump BOs authorized the Bureau to kill all of the salmon in the Sacramento River, the State Water Board could have used their authority under state law to force the Bureau to protect salmon – by keeping enough water behind Shasta Dam to keep water temperatures low enough to allow spawning salmon to survive.  But the State Board failed again.  

Over the past 6 years, the Newsom Administration has made a long string of anti-salmon Bay-Delta decisions. These policies are largely responsible for the crash of salmon runs in the past few years.  It’s pretty simple.  If state agencies let water projects kill all of the baby salmon, a few years later, you don’t have enough adults to support the fishing industry or enough spawners in our rivers. 

But those decisions are only half of the story.  Governor Newsom is also a strong supporter of the massive Delta tunnel and Sites Reservoir.  Those projects, in combination with the Bay-Delta Voluntary Agreements, represent a water grab that would make conditions for salmon and the Bay-Delta far worse.  

Of course, it’s not too late for Governor Newsom to change course.  We’d welcome a chance to talk with him about his agencies salmon policies over the past six years – and a new course for the next two.