Both salmon and the San Joaquin Valley lose under state’s Bay Delta Plan

Wednesday, California’s salmon lost. So too did one of the most disadvantaged communities in the state. And so did any local government or public agency in California.

The State Water Resources Control Board adopted the long anticipated Bay-Delta Plan’s Substitute Environmental Document, which calls for diverting up to 50 percent of our region’s water supply to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta is the state’s water hub, providing fresh water to people living on the coast, in the South San Joaquin Valley and to 20 million in Southern California.

By adopting the SED, the state ensured water diversion will remain tied up in the courts for years. The state also set the stage for a dangerous legal precedent that should frighten any Californian: if the state can come into one of the most disadvantaged communities and steal our water, what will prevent it from imposing its will on any other community and taking their locally owned and managed resources?

Merced Irrigation District had proposed an alternative that, ironically, would have provided immediate increased flows on the Merced River during key salmon spawning times. The state’s response: it’s not enough.

MID had also committed to restoring more than five miles of river habitat, near Snelling, that had been altered by dredge miners long before the district even existed. The state’s response: it’s not enough.

MID committed to addressing predation by non-native bass and increasing production at the Merced River salmon hatchery. The state’s response: it’s not enough.

What would have been enough? Our region’s water supply plunging downstream to the Delta to benefit other farmers and cities elsewhere in the state.

It’s that simple – nothing else would have sufficed. There never was any possibility of a settlement.

When Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom asked the water board for more time to reach a voluntary settlement agreement, the idea was for MID and the state’s environmental agencies to figure out how to help the state improve salmon populations without devastating our most important industry. Other water agencies on the east side of the Valley were given the same direction.

But discussions were stacked with lobbyists, consultants and lawyers. They had nothing to lose.

MID made a clear decision: we were not simply going to give up our community’s water simply to reach a settlement for the political gain of Sacramento insiders and the State Water Board.

Why is the water we store in Lake McClure important? It provides water for agriculture, replenishes eastern Merced County groundwater for drinking and provides recreation – and it benefits our region’s environment by being shared with area wildlife preserves.

The State and some journalists have falsely portrayed this as a choice between farmers vs. fish. The irony? If the state water board ultimately succeeds, the water will still benefit farmers – just not our farmers. Instead, it will benefit those farmers who pump their water from the Delta.

The real debate is between a disadvantaged community and Sacramento’s environmental bureaucracy – backed by extremists within the environmental movement and an unbalanced approach to resource management. Human consumption must be considered along with the needs of fish and reasonable approaches taken for multi-benefit use of California’s water.

We have given the State Water Board every opportunity to work with us. They have ignored our efforts and simply demanded half of our community’s water supply. Our proposal is this: first resolve the degradation to the Delta that you allowed. Then, stop the predation of salmon by non-native bass. Then stop illegal water diversions. End pollution. Restore Delta floodplains by removing some land from agriculture. Then come ask us to do our part.

Until then, we are committed to fighting the state water board every step of the way.

In 2016, Merced Irrigation District developed the Merced River SAFE (Salmon, Agriculture, Flows and Environment) Plan, offering a comprehensive, sustainable alternative that helps agriculture, fisheries and the environment. The SAFE Plan would have put decades of river science – and tens of millions of dollars – into immediate action.

In contrast, the state’s Bay-Delta Plan proposes vast new water diversions predicted to result in an annual increase of 2,059 to 7,637 salmon – across all three rivers. From 2012 to 2016, an average of 169,400 salmon were caught in California each year, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The additional salmon represent only a 1 to 4 percent increase in the total. But it will cost nearly $1 billion in economic output and kill 970 full- and part-time jobs.

Merced Irrigation District has taken every step possible to reach an equitable settlement with the state. But it has become increasingly apparent there was no sincere interest in reaching a compromise benefiting salmon and protecting our water.

There were no surprises Wednesday when the State Water Board adopted the SED. And it shouldn’t be surprising that MID will take every possible action to protect our community’s water supply.