Gov. Newsom’s threat to sue Trump upends peace talks on California water wars– SacBee
Now, one of the nation’s most powerful farm irrigation districts says it will back out of the agreements completely if Newsom follows through with a pledge to sue President Donald Trump over a federal plan to pump more water to farmers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the fragile estuary on Sacramento’s doorstep….
But Doug Obegi, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Westlands’ threat to walk away from the talks — so soon after threatening to walk during the SB 1 debate — amounts to the farm-water agency trying to “bully the state into backing away from fighting the Trump administration.”
“It does feel like we’ve seen this dance before,” Obegi said.
Reax from Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director, Restore the Delta, Stockton
“It seems the Newsom Administration is not fully committed to litigating against the Trump Water Plan and is supporting a voluntary agreement that will drastically cut freshwater flows in the summer and fall when toxic algal blooms proliferate. The question now is if the Newsom Administration will stand with Westlands, Bernhardt, and Trump, or protect the Delta’s family farmers and environmental justice communities who are already experiencing disproportionate environmental degradation.