McDaniel: State water board trying to drain away Merced County’s chief supply
Less than a week before Christmas in 2016, the State Water Resources Control Board held a single public hearing in our community. The topic? Draining our community’s water supply and sending it to the Bay Delta.
Not only was the hearing deliberately held when our community’s attention was focused on the holiday — it was the only local hearing the Water Board held in Merced before adopting its ill-conceived Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan SED.
That callous act in December of 2016 set the stage for what would unfold in the state’s attempt to steal our community’s water supply. What has happened in the past few weeks is almost inconceivable.
Similar to the board holding a public hearing just days before a major holiday, the board also is attempting to sneak legislation through the state budget process — in the middle of a pandemic — when most of the state Capitol is literally vacant as a result of social distancing. Rather than seek legislation through the regular policy order of the Legislature — with the full sunlight of open public committee hearings — the state water board is attempting to expand its authority in ways that would enhance its ability to divert our community’s water. It is doing this through a budget trailer bill.
The State Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan SED claimed fresh water was needed from our local rivers for the benefit of salmon. In response, the Merced Irrigation District — owner and operator of Lake McClure — had attempted to develop an alternative that would greatly enhance the life cycle of salmon. The former Merced River SAFE Plan (Salmon, Agriculture, Flows, Environment) would have released more water down the Merced River at specific times to support salmon migration. It also would have restored salmon-rearing habitat altered decades ago by dredge mining; invested in enhancements to the local Merced River salmon hatchery; and included measures to address predation of juvenile salmon by non-native bass.
Although the board only held one hearing in our community, our residents traveled multiple times to Sacramento to urge officials there to take a more reasonable and measured approach — one that was backed by modern studies and updated science. In December 2018, the board proved what we had all known in the Valley for years: its plan had nothing to do with salmon and everything to do with diverting our region’s water supply to benefit more privileged communities elsewhere in the state. Since that time, the state has been sued over the Bay Delta Plan.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the board and its allies seized the opportunity. With the legislative process curtailed, the Capitol nearly empty and all eyes focused on the pandemic and economy, the board attempted to insert legislation into the budget that would grant the board new authority to divert our region’s water supply.
As if that wasn’t enough, the board followed soon after by attempting to issue a draft order in the re-licensing process of New Exchequer Dam on Lake McClure. That order would pave the way for diverting our region’s water supply outside the Bay Delta Water Plan SED, now tied up in court. The problem with this? While the federal re-licensing process is underway for New Exchequer Dam, nothing has yet triggered the state process requiring participation from the board. So in simple terms, the board just attempted to issue environmental mitigation measures for something that doesn’t technically yet exist for their review.
It has become clearer than ever that the State Water Board will stop at nothing — and sink to the absolute lowest levels of human decency — to divert our region’s water supply to farms, communities and environments outside the Valley.