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California lawmakers, despite Governor Gavin Newsom's objections, on Saturday passed tough legislation allowing the state to impose strict protection measures for endangered species and restrictions on water pumping in the Sacramento delta. -San Joaquin.
The governor must now decide to veto the bill and anger the Californian environmentalists, who will surely accuse him of slipping into the Trump administration, signing the bill and provoking anger of the state's largest water agencies.
The delta-related problems, which provides water to over 25 million people and millions of acres of agricultural land in the Central Valley, have become the biggest source of political tension in the legislation, designed to protect California from reducing federal protections for environmental and labor protection. .
Senate Speaker Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), one of Sacramento's most powerful politicians, led the legislation. Sending the bill to Newsom's office is one of the first times these two leaders clashed over a major state policy. This could affect their future relationships, which could complicate the governor's legislative agenda.
Senate Bill 1 would allow state agencies to enact protections under the federal Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Air Act. the reorganization of labor standards and other important environmental and labor laws in effect prior to the inauguration of President Trump in January 2017.
"I think we are living in an era that requires urgent action on the part of citizens to protect the natural resources of our state, our environment and the safety of our workers," said Atkins shortly before the adoption of the draft. law.
Many of the labor and environmental provisions were not controversial. However, many water agencies, including the influential Southern Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, feared that species at risk provisions and pumping restrictions in deltas would limit their water supply at key times. of the year.
The Newsom administration shared some of these concerns, as did US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) And four Central Valley Democrats in Congress who submitted a letter last week requesting that the bill be amended .
Atkins insisted on the need to preserve wildlife protections, anticipating a possible confrontation with the Democratic governor at the close of the legislative session in 2019 on Friday night.
Environmental groups, which were a key element of the Liberal coalition that contributed to Newsom's election, saw SB 1 as one of their top priorities for this year's legislative session. Sierra Club California, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Audubon California and other groups have strongly supported the bill. He crossed the state Senate in May with a 28-10 vote and underwent several changes, based on meetings with various parties.
"The California legislature basically says," California, do not worry, we have your back, "said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. "Americans do not want dirty air. They want water that they can drink. And they are not happy with what Trump does for the environment. "
Phillips said she was confident that Newsom will sign the bill when it will end up on his desk, noting that he was elected on an "environmental platform", which is consistent with what that he did.
Republican and Democratic legislators, mainly from the Central Valley, have spoken out against the bill.
Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) said the law would revive water wars in California. Republican Congressman Devon Mathis of Visalia said it was "an instinctive reaction" from a legislature of a state dominated by the Democratic Party. He said it would have a devastating effect on agriculture in the Central Valley by cutting off its water supply, an assertion that supporters of the bill deny.
"This bill literally turns my area of the state into a bowl of dust," said Mathis during the Assembly's debate on the bill Friday night. "I have some of the highest poverty rates, I have one of the largest areas of Latin American immigration. And these people depend on farm work, which means that they depend on water. "
The main legislative battle was to protect smelt, chinook and rainbow trout by limiting the amount of water that can be removed. Water users, including farms in the Central Valley and cities in southern California, have been competing for decades with environmentalists.
In recent weeks, the water community has launched a campaign to derail legislation or significantly change it.
Jennifer Pierre, executive director of the State Water Contractors Association, said recently that the proposed bill would lock in outdated federal rules governing water pumping and species protection in the delta. As a result, new scientific discoveries offering recommendations for better water and species management practices will be ignored, she said.
The biggest problem of the bill was a provision that would impose the protection of species at risk and the state's pumping restrictions on the Central Valley Project, the water supply system managed by the Government's Bureau of Reclamation. federal. The Central Valley Project provides much of the water consumed by farms and residents in Central California's Central Valley.
The Central Valley Project's water supply districts have threatened to evade voluntary agreements negotiated between them and the state's regulatory agencies. The pacts were intended to allow greater flexibility in how to protect endangered species and to divert delta waters. Newsom supported the voluntary agreements and did not want to see them derail, officials said, which is why he had urged Atkins to amend the bill.
Jeffrey Kightlinger, General Manager of the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California, said the agreements would benefit both water users and the ecosystem. Such gains will be lost if Newsom signs the bill, he said.
"If the bill has the force of law, I guess everyone is going back to their camps and continuing each other," Kightlinger said. "Supporters of this bill know it and decided it was worth it."
Phillips called the arguments of these agencies intimidated. Water agencies and farmers in the Central Valley want the protection against endangered species, weakened by the Trump administration, to be in place in order to pump more water from the delta, she declared.
Since Trump took office, it has been wondered whether water users would accept the proposed regulations under Governor Jerry Brown 's administration or would seek better deals now that' s the only way in the world. Trump's administration had pushed downward.
In August, the White House took action to weaken the 45-year-old Endangered Species Act, including removing protections for species recently added to the endangered species list. This week, he announced that he would weaken the Obama era's rules for protecting wetlands.
Last month, the Times also announced that federal officials had removed a lengthy environmental report detailing how a number of California species would be threatened by Trump's plan to provide more water from the delta to farmhouses. the central valley.
The Metropolitan Water District has defended the federal government's actions, saying little has changed, according to a claim that environmental groups have contested as propaganda.
Times editor Liam Dillon contributed to this report.
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