On February 13, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a controversial executive order that he claimed protects the state’s water supplies “from the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather” by waiving environmental standards that require more water to be released into the Delta to protect salmon, Delta smelt and other fish.

The order would allow the state to hold more water in Central Valley reservoirs. The order is the result of political pressure from the state's powerful agribusiness industry, who complained the state was allowing too much water from storms to flow into the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and then into the ocean.

Anglers, conservationists and environmental justice advocates fired back quickly in response, arguing that the plan authorizes measures that will end up devastating already imperiled Central Valley salmon populations, Delta smelt and the San Francisco-Bay Delta Estuary. 

“After years of prolonged drought, recent storms resulted in the wettest three-week period on record in California,” argued Governor Gavin Newsom in a press statement. “The storms have been followed by an unseasonably dry February, however, and the state could see a return to warm and dry conditions during the remaining weeks of the wet season – just as heavy rains in fall 2021 gave way to the driest January-February-March period in over 100 years.” 

The Governor claimed that the order helps expand the state’s capacity to “capture storm runoff in wet years by facilitating groundwater recharge projects.” 

“It also continues conservation measures and allows the State Water Board to reevaluate requirements for reservoir releases and diversion limitations to maximize water supplies north and south of the Delta while protecting the environment,” Newsom stated. “Additionally, the order directs state agencies to review and provide recommendations on the state’s drought response actions by the end of April, including the possibility of terminating specific emergency provisions that are no longer needed, once there is greater clarity about the hydrologic conditions this year.”

The executive order was immediately followed by a request from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) for such a waiver, which admits that cutting Delta outflow will harm the… “survival of juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead migrating from the Sacramento River basin during February and March 2023 ...”  

DWR also admits that their increased pumping will suck baby salmon off their natural migration path and into the interior Delta, what CDFW fishery biologist Frank Fisher over 30 years ago aptly described as the “Black Hole of Death.” The agency admits that “lesser Delta inflow could affect North Delta hydrodynamics, including greater entry into the interior Delta…and reduced through-Delta survival”.  

OPPOSE GOVERNOR NEWSOM'S CORRUPT FEB. 13, 2023 EXECUTIVE ORDER BY SIGNING THIS PETITION!