California Senator Boxer is one of the only ones who can save California's rivers and their endangered salmon and steelhead. Her colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is negotiating with radical anti-environmentalists in the House on a substantial rollback of environmental protections for Central Valley rivers, salmon, and the San Francisco Estuary. Their California “drought relief” bill won’t address the drought, but would (1) override federal protections for Chinook salmon and delta smelt, (2) fast-track expensive and environmentally harmful new dams, and (3) make it harder to implement the federal mandate to double anadromous fish populations.   This bill -- a handout to the powerful Central Valley Ag industry -- is rumored to be even worse than Senator Feinstein's previous "drought" legislation, which was opposed by the environmental and fishing communities, many California legislators, and the Brown Administration.  

Sources tell us the new bill would:  

• Eliminate existing regulations that require freshwater flows and restrict export pumping to prevent salmon and smelt from going extinct as a result of water project operations;  

• Weaken the environmental review process for new dams and reservoirs; and, in contrast,  

• Create new barriers to achieving the longstanding requirement to double populations of salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon, and other provisions of federal water law.  

Congress is preparing to move this bill quickly and Senator Boxer is the one of very few Senators who can step in to protect California's rivers, fish, and wildlife.  Ask Senator Boxer to support REAL water reforms, not ever-larger handouts to industry.