Headlines

April 20, 2025

Salmon fishing shutdown marks a grim milestone. But California shouldn’t give up hope

CalMatters
We love that you want to share our stories with your readers. Hundreds of publications republish our work on a regular basis.

All of the articles at CalMatters are available to republish for free, under the following conditions:

Photos and illustrations from wire services like the Associated Press, Reuters, iStock are not free to republish.

Do not sell our stories, and do not sell ads specifically against our stories. Feel free, however, to publish it on a page surrounded by ads you’ve already sold.…

Read the full article at CalMatters

Officials warn of ‘urgent invasive species threat’ in Northern California

San Francisco Chronicle
The industrial area along the Port of Stockton, a deepwater shipping channel located on an island in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta, on May 22, 2023, in Stockton, Calif.
George Rose/Getty ImagesLast October, an invasive species never before seen in North America was discovered in the deep waters of the Port of Stockton, about 92 miles east of San Francisco. No larger than the size of a paperclip, the seemingly innocuous, caramel-colored shells of golden mussels clinging to buoys and monitoring equipment in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and subsequently found at O’Neill Forebay in the San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos — have left California officials scrambling to stop the spread.
On Wednesday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released its plan to address what it’s calling an “urgent invasive species threat,” with strategies to prevent further distribution of golden mussels and to minimize their impact on the environment, recreation, agriculture and, notably, drinking water infrastructure. 
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

Two-thirds of California residents depend on water from the San Joaquin Delta, as SFGATE previously reported. Krysten Kellum, a spokesperson for the CDFW, said the mollusks are “highly efficient filter feeders that can form dense colonies,” and if they were to spread to the Bay Area, they could clog pipes, impede water flow and damage watercraft motors. 
“These impacts necessitate ongoing, costly removal to maintain operational function,” Kellum said, which can lead to “economic impacts to water conveyances, energy production, recreation, agriculture and ultimately, the public.”
Golden mussels are an invasive species from China and Southeast Asia and were first identified outside of their native range in South America in the 1990s. Experts suspect the mussels were likely introduced to California by a ship traveling from an international port. 
“The discovery of golden mussels in California is a serious challenge that requires coordinated action and a long-term commitment,” CDFW Director Charlton Bonham said in a news release. “This response framework recommends critical steps that must be taken across state, regional and local levels to limit the spread and mitigate the impacts of this invasive species.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

The agency also plans to offer $1 million in grant funding to boating facility operators to help prevent any new introductions of the species and ensure the long-term ecological health of California’s lakes, reservoirs and other waterways. Reservoir managers are also introducing new guidelines to swimmers and boaters before the busy summer months.
Folsom Lake at the base of the Sierra Foothills and Lake Clementine just outside of Auburn closed to all trailered and motorized vessels on Monday, and people who want to launch their boats there will be required to go through a mandatory 30-day quarantine, per California State Parks. After May 14, visitors will be “required to have a quarantine, and/or decontamination seal intact and verified prior to entering the water,” officials said. Lake Berryessa, similarly, requires hot water decontamination or a 30-day quarantine.
Officials are trying to control the spread of golden mussels in California waterways.
California Department of Fish and WildlifeCurrent rules for other Bay Area waterways are as follows, per a map from KCRA-TV:
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad…

Read the full article at San Francisco Chronicle

A major California city wants to revive its dry river. It’s not easy

San Francisco Chronicle
The Kern River, shown passing near Panorama Park in Bakersfield, is one of the southernmost rivers in the Sierra Nevada. A group of Bakersfield residents is seeking to replenish it as a centerpiece for the community.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. ChronicleFor decades, residents of Bakersfield have lived with a river that’s little more than a channel of dust.
The Kern, which pours from the snowy peaks of the southern Sierra, descends upon California’s ninth-largest city and, in all but the wettest of years, runs dry. A sandy, weed-strewn corridor is left winding unremarkably through the downtown, beside roads, beneath bridges and behind businesses.
“Any major city that has a river or that sort of thing, they try to take advantage of it and make it an asset rather than an eyesore,” said Bill Cooper, who grew up near the Kern and has lived in Bakersfield most of his life. “A river can really add to a community. But nobody wants to live in our crappy town. Unfortunately, Bakersfield has that reputation.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

A group of residents is trying to change that. Cooper and dozens of others are fighting to bring water back to the Kern River, hoping to create a lush, parklike centerpiece in a city best known for the sunbaked oil fields and farms that surround it.
It isn’t an easy go. The river’s waters are already largely accounted for, some serving the municipal needs of Bakersfield and nearby communities, but most drawn for agriculture, the engine of the regional economy. Keeping more water in the river could mean less for growing almonds, oranges, grapes and more than 200 other crops. Many fear that food supplies, jobs and income stand to be lost, and they’re pushing back.
“To just say ag is using all the water and we need to change that, you’re ignoring decades of history and how this came about,” said Edwin Camp, a third-generation grower outside Bakersfield who has staked his livelihood on the promise of Kern River water. “It scares me. What are we supposed to depend on?” 
The fight over the river is coming to a head this year in the courts. The dispute pits Bakersfield residents, organized under the banner Bring Back the Kern, and a slate of environmental organizations against the water users: the 413,000-person city and a handful of agricultural water districts.
The California Attorney General’s Office also joined the fray recently, intervening on behalf of the residents. The state is concerned that a judgment that fails to restore water to the Kern could open the door to challenges to flow protections on other rivers similarly burdened by overuse and, increasingly, the warming climate.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

Initially, the residents and their allies won a tentative decision that showed promise for their cause. In 2023, after the river unexpectedly swelled during one of the wettest winters in a half-century, a Kern County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction that obligated the city to keep water in the river to safeguard fish, at least until the trial plays out.
But that order was reversed this month by an appeals court. The three-judge panel found that the lower court had not evaluated broader impacts when it made the preliminary decision about the river water, including harm caused to urban and agricultural water supplies, as required by the state Constitution. Attorneys for the city and water districts praised the ruling as a validation of the long-standing interests on the river.
A trial for the case is scheduled for December. Should the proceedings go forward, attorneys for Bring Back the Kern and their partners are expected to argue that draining the river is a violation of California’s public trust doctrine. The doctrine asserts that certain natural resources must be preserved for the public good.
The public trust issue, which is not new to the water world, was perhaps most famously taken up at Mono Lake, where the courts ruled decades ago that the headwaters of the ecologically prized basin couldn’t be entirely siphoned off for thirsty communities in Southern California.
Each public trust case is different, however, and historically, judges have given deference to commerce, including farming. Both environmentalists and water suppliers statewide are watching closely to see how the matter unfolds on the Kern.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

The Mohawk Street bridge goes over the Kern River in Bakersfield, where the river usually runs dry.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
A Bakersfield beachThe Kern River is one of the southernmost rivers in the Sierra Nevada, with headwaters near the base of 14,500-foot Mount Whitney.
The river’s 165-mile course runs unfettered through remote forests and canyons before hitting the dam at Lake Isabella and dropping sharply into the flatlands of the San Joaquin Valley. There, draws on the river provide nearly a third of the surface water that fuels Kern County’s $8 billion of annual crop production — among the most of any California county.
In the past, the waterway continued through Bakersfield to the now dried-up Buena Vista Lake on the valley floor. Since the late 1800s, however, increasing water diversions reduced the flow in its lower reaches. Now there is virtually none.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad

“We once had a Bakersfield Beach,” said Rich O’Neil, who grew up in the city in the 1940s and ’50s and remembers year-round flows on the Kern through the downtown. “People would sunbathe, swim, fish. There were places to kayak and canoe.”
In the 1970s, when O’Neil joined fellow Bakersfield resident Bill Cooper to spearhead a bike path along the city’s riverfront, the water had already stopped flowing through town. During the early construction of what would become the Kern River Parkway, with a 30-mile-plus bicycle path, volunteers carried in buckets of water — in lieu of river water — to keep the trees alive.
“We were told by city water people they were trying to get water in the channel,” Cooper said. “We believed them. We were young.”
Since 1976, the city of Bakersfield has owned and operated several diversion dams, or weirs, along the river, each of which steers water into canals. About 25% of the water goes to the city and the rest to agricultural water districts. The districts have either longtime water rights on the Kern or contract with the city for supplies.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad…

Read the full article at San Francisco Chronicle

Changes Loom for Innovative Lower #ColoradoRiver Endangered Species Program Amid #Drought, New River Rules – Matt Jenkins (Water Education Foundation)

coyotegulch.blog
Endangered bonytail chub were released into a Colorado River lagoon south of Laughlin, Nev., in spring of 2024 as part of the MSCP. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

Click the link to read the article on the Water Education Foundation website (Matt Jenkins):

WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: As the 50-year Multi-Species Conservation Program hits the 20-year mark this month, new questions about how to keep it strong hang over its future

Before the construction of Hoover Dam on the lower Colorado River, as well as a slew of smaller sisters downstream, the stretch downriver served as a biological oasis in the middle of the unrelenting Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The marshes and backwaters along the river’s edge provided sheltered areas for fish to spawn and rear their young, and mesquite and cottonwood-willow forests provided important habitat for numerous species of birds and other animals. But when Lake Mead began filling behind Hoover Dam in 1935, it drastically reduced the amount of water flowing downstream, radically altering the habitat there.

In the decades that followed, the river flow captured by Hoover Dam became a critical source of water for farms and cities across Southern California, Nevada and Arizona – transforming deserts into some of the nation’s most productive farmland and creating some of the most populous cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Today, more than 27 million people in the three states rely on water from the Colorado River—roughly two-thirds of the total population that the river serves. Yet even as that dependence on the river grew, a collision between human and environmental needs was brewing.

Historically, the Colorado River was home to more than 30 mostly endemic native fish species. In 1967, a native fish called the pikeminnow and another called the humpback chub were classified as endangered under federal law. They were the first of what are known as the four “big river” fish species to be added to the endangered species list. Thirteen years later, in 1980, came the bonytail chub. Then, in 1991, came the fourth – the razorback sucker. (An endemic bird called the Yuma clapper rail had also been classified as endangered in 1967.)

For municipal and agricultural water managers who depended on the Colorado, the growing list of endangered species was a wakeup call. It spurred a decade-long effort to craft a multi-party agreement that allowed water agencies to continue delivering water to their users while staying ahead of the mounting endangered species issues. That effort has largely proven successful, but as the program now crosses the 20-year mark, new questions are arising about how to keep it strong for the next three decades in the face of grinding drought, contentious negotiations over the river’s future, and new uncertainties about the federal government’s role in its continued implementation.

A New Approach on Habitat

In November 1994, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the big Colorado River dams and makes water deliveries, agreed to work together with state and local agencies to mitigate the effects of water and power operations on threatened and endangered species. The effort didn’t come a moment too soon: Four months later, another species — a bird called the southwestern willow flycatcher — was also declared endangered.

“When the big-river fishes were listed, it was a kick in the pants for folks along the river to put together something broad enough to anticipate most of what’s going to happen in the next 50 years,” said Jessica Neuwerth, the executive director of the Colorado River Board of California, which represents the state’s agricultural and urban users of the river’s water. “Then the southwestern willow flycatcher kicked it into overdrive.”

As it happened, a new approach had recently appeared on the horizon that focused on restoring and protecting habitat not just for individual endangered species, but for a broad range of them existing in a particular region. Long-term, large-scale “multispecies habitat conservation plans” were taking shape in a variety of places, including California’s San Diego County, southwestern Riverside County and the Coachella Valley.

The four so-called big river fish, from top: razorback sucker, Colorado pikeminnow, bonytail chub and humpback chub. (Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The new approach was championed by Bruce Babbitt, the former governor of Arizona who, at the time, was Interior secretary under Bill Clinton. “Babbitt was a big advocate for this style of landscape-level species and habitat management,” said Chris Harris, who preceded Neuwerth at California’s Colorado River Board and was involved in the early discussions. “And he really urged all of us to keep our noses to the grindstone and put something together that could work.”

The effort to create a broad habitat conservation program for the Lower Colorado dragged on for a decade. But it quickly became clear that all the participants would be better off if they tackled the endangered species issue together. Finally, in April 2005, the federal government and non-federal participants signed an agreement that officially launched the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program. Under it, the Bureau of Reclamation, irrigation districts and municipal water agencies committed to a 50-year, $626 million inflation-adjusted program, splitting the cost evenly between the federal government and state parties.

The Lower Colorado River MSCP “is unique in a lot of ways — partly because it is a federal and non-federal program, where we really haven’t even tried necessarily to disentangle whose impact is whose,” said Neuwerth. “There’s so much overlap between what the feds do and what the state or local agencies do that we really are bound together. We’ve blended both the non-federal and federal compliance into one package, and it’s more efficient than everybody going off and doing their own thing.”

Managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, the program pledged to create 512 acres of marsh and 360 acres of backwaters — habitat for Colorado River native fish — as well as 1,320 acres of mesquite woodland and 5,940 acres of cottonwood-willow forest along the river for the imperiled birds. In addition, the program would pay for rearing and stocking more than 660,000 razorback suckers and 620,000 bonytail; fund ongoing maintenance of the newly created habitat; and carry out monitoring and research to adaptively manage restoration efforts based on an

Intended to last over the long term, the MSCP was also designed to be flexible. “That’s always been the goal,” said Neuwerth, “to be proactive and make sure that we have this umbrella that’s going to protect us for a pretty wide range of future conditions.”

Seth Shanahan, Colorado River Program Manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. (Source: Water Education Foundation)

The program was not designed to recover endangered species populations. But it was, at its root, an insurance program to protect Lower Basin water users and the federal government against potential violations of the Endangered Species Act, or ESA, as they continued their primary mission of delivering water to cities and farms.

“We couldn’t do what we do on a day-to-day basis without this program,” said Seth Shanahan, the Colorado River Program Manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), which supplies water to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. He noted that water agencies are dependent on the Bureau of Reclamation’s ability to store water in Lake Mead and deliver it downstream, as well as to develop plans for when to take shortages and how to share water among themselves to lessen the impacts of drought. “All of that is enabled by the MSCP.”

Helping Species Survive and Thrive

In contrast to an endangered-species recovery program, the MSCP isn’t explicitly intended to increase endangered species populations to the point that they can be taken off the endangered species list, or their protection status at least downgraded.

“MSCP is a habitat creation program,” said Vineetha Kartha, Colorado River programs manager for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which transports river water to Phoenix, Tucson, farms and tribes. “We are creating habitat so that species thrive and can still survive under these changed circumstances.”

Twenty years in, the program has already created roughly 75 percent of the habitat it initially pledged to take on.

“We’re trying to do the best we can with what is available,” said SNWA’s Shanahan. “Restoring the functionality of habitat for species is the important part, not necessarily (restoring) it to what was there 500 years ago.”

Workers plant seedlings of cottonwoods, willows and mesquite trees at an MSCP habitat restoration project south of Blythe, California. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

MSCP’s adaptive management, or adjust-as-you-go, approach has helped it adapt to changing conditions and a constantly improving understanding of how to meet the needs of individual species. “Folks early on realized they didn’t know everything. So they gave us an opportunity to modify the course as we learn more information, and that’s really useful,” Shanahan said. “We need to have some space to try different things and see what works.”

One important part of the program focuses on stocking hatchery-raised razorback suckers and bonytail into their native habitat below Hoover Dam. But because the natural system has been so drastically altered, ensuring their survival hasn’t been easy.

“It’s a tough hand of cards for native fish in this part of the world,” said Neuwerth, an environmental scientist by training. “We have dams, we have diversions, we have introduced fish, and there’s really no way of turning that clock back. We’re doing the best we can with the system as it is, and we’re trying out new stuff all the time. Anything that can give our fish an edge, we’ve looked at it.”

Giving native fish — which are raised in hatcheries as far away as eastern New Mexico — that edge has gone as far as running “fish survival camps” to teach them the kind of street smarts they need to survive in the modern-day river. At one point, fisheries biologists even used Botox injections to paralyze the jaws of non-native fish and then released them, along with a dose of predator-alarm pheromones, into ponds filled with razorback suckers and bonytail chub to teach them how to recognize and avoid predators.

Outside-the-box experimentation like that has been just one of the ways the MSCP has been able to adapt to changing realities on the river.

Humpback chub swim in the waters of the Lower Colorado River. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

“We always knew that what we were doing was not going to be the be-all, end-all, for the full 50-year term,” Harris said. To accommodate unanticipated events such as the discovery of new protected species within the MSCP project area, the program’s creators adopted what he called a “plug and play” approach.

In 2015, biologists discovered the presence of the threatened Northern Mexican gartersnake upstream of Lake Havasu, a key reservoir for Southern California and Arizona, possibly drawn in by habitat improvements made under the MSCP.

“That wasn’t on our list (in 2005) but then became threatened, and it was found within our program area,” said SNWA’s Shanahan. “So we also had to go back and consult on the impacts to that species. But there were mechanisms in the permits that allowed us to do that pretty efficiently.”

‘A String of Pearls’

The heart of the MSCP is its commitment to create conservation areas that provide the marshes, backwaters and riverside forest on which endangered species depend. One of the MSCP conservation areas lies on tribal land of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe.

“The tribe had a strong interest in pursuing a project that would reconnect the tribal people and the larger community back to the river,” said Brian Golding, Sr., the Quechan tribe’s economic development director. As dams, levees and irrigation projects were developed, “the river was forgotten. Anything on the river side of the levees essentially became overgrown and invaded by invasive species and became a no-man’s land.”

Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program

Since 2005, the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program has grown to include 18 habitat conservation areas along the river. The map below highlights the six stretches of the river with MSCP-managed habitat.

In 2004 the tribe, in partnership with the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, the city of Yuma and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, began restoring wetlands on the tribe’s reservation along the Colorado River, creating a mosaic of marshes and stands of mesquite, cottonwood and willow that benefit an array of endangered species. In 2013, the tribe finalized an agreement with the MSCP to include the 380-acre Yuma East Wetlands within the program in exchange for operation and maintenance funding over 50 years.

That has helped the tribe develop its own ability to restore and maintain natural habitat along the river. Today, six members of the tribe work on habitat restoration and maintenance, along with a tribe member-owned contracting company, and Golding said the tribe is in talks with the MSCP program to restore another 30 to 40 acres of wetlands along the river.

The Yuma East Wetlands are just one piece of the bigger network of conservation areas, which has grown to 18 sites between Hoover Dam and the Mexican border.

When the MSCP first started, “I think people thought this was just a Band-Aid and duct tape approach,” said Harris. “Now, these conservation areas are really a string of pearls, and they’re all sort of connected together. Every few miles, there’s a huge patch of native riparian marsh and aquatic habitat that’s being managed by the program so the species can travel up and down the riverine corridor – whether they’re birds or fish or terrestrial species – and have these areas of safe haven.”

Although the MSCP is a stand-alone program, it’s ecologically linked with an ambitious restoration effort taking place across the border in Mexico. There, a coalition of non-governmental organizations including National Audubon Society, Restauremos el Colorado, the Sonoran Institute and Pronatura have been working to restore portions of the Colorado River Delta. “Many of the ideas and techniques that have been developed and utilized in the MSCP have now been applied in the Mexican restoration program,” Harris said, “so there’s been a lot of carryover and cross pollination from work done under the MSCP down to the environmental program in Mexico.”

The Hart Mine Marsh was initially created by historic flood flows from the Colorado River, but as the river system changed, including from water operations, the marsh deteriorated. Reconstruction of the marsh is among the habitat projects undertaken through the MSCP. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

Ecologically, both those efforts also tie together with the ongoing initiative to restore habitat at the Salton Sea, Harris said. “If you can link those three areas,” he said, “you’ve got a pretty good mosaic now from Lake Mead downstream all the way to the Gulf of California.”

Julia Morton, Audubon’s Colorado River program manager, said MSCP’s comprehensive approach and its rigorous scientific monitoring program can help improve conditions not just for the species it’s specifically designed to protect, but for the entire ecosystem along the lower reaches of the river. “That’s a huge improvement over ‘one-off’ mitigation projects,” she said.

In late April, the MSCP’s steering committee will vote on a request by Audubon to join the committee — a move that would only strengthen the synergy between the U.S and Mexican restoration efforts. “The frameworks and the driving forces of each program are pretty different,” said Morton, “but at the end of the day, these programs are both creating quality habitat.”

The Catch-22 of Historic Drought

Those efforts seem to be yielding positive results. In 2021, for instance, the humpback chub was “down listed” from endangered to threatened. But along the way, the MSCP has been forced to contend with a number of unanticipated challenges – especially drought.

“A lot of thought was put into MSCP,” said CAP’s Kartha. But when the program was designed, “we didn’t understand how bad the hydrologies could tank.”

Vineetha Kartha, Colorado River programs manager for the Central Arizona Project. (Source: Central Arizona Project)

When the MSCP was officially launched in 2005, the Colorado River Basin was already five years into a major drought, which has only gotten worse in the years since. The drought is now dragging into its 25th year, and studies suggest that it could be the worst drought on the river in the past 1,200 years.

“Hydrology has been our biggest surprise so far,” said Kartha. “And basically, we have had to move with the times.”

In 2019, the seven Colorado River states and the federal government agreed to a pair of “drought contingency plans” to save water and store it in lakes Mead and Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs. In 2024, the Lower Basin states agreed to a follow-on plan to conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet over three years and store that in Lake Mead. Those actions helped the states prop up their water supply, but that also meant somewhere around 1.7 million acre-feet less water was released from Hoover Dam per year.

Those efforts to weather the drought have revealed a Catch-22. For decades, water use contributed to the decline in the river’s native species. Now, though, using less water potentially harms the environment, because as that conserved water is stored in Lake Mead, less water flows down the lower Colorado River, potentially amplifying damage to habitat.

“We are in this strange paradox where folks doing the right thing for the system and leaving water behind (in Lake Mead) could potentially have an impact on the river channel,” Neuwerth said. “So we’re balancing those two things and trying to avoid getting caught in a situation where we’re penalized for saving water.”

The 2019 and 2024 drought-protection strategies forced the Bureau of Reclamation to initiate two rounds of “reconsultation,” a process under which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviews any new federal actions that may harm endangered species or their habitat. In response, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a pair of biological opinions that required the MSCP to create another 180 acres of marsh and backwater habitat to offset the potential loss of habitat caused by the reduced flows.

Uncertain Future Federal Role

Questions about water availability, funding and regulatory oversight may only sharpen in the future. The change in presidential administration earlier this year has already raised uncertainty about the federal government’s role going forward.

In March, the Bureau of Reclamation declined comment for this story “due to our on-going mission requirements, the increased workload to accommodate the new administration’s priorities and awaiting the appointment of the new Reclamation Commissioner and their direction.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also declined comment, using nearly identical language.

The lowland leopard frog, one of the species covered by the MSCP. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

It’s indisputable that the federal government has played a critical role in the success of the MSCP — and its role in assuring reliable water supplies for some 27 million people in the river’s Lower Basin states.

“When (the non-federal participants) were originally talking about putting together the program, they were considering whether to hire a third party to do the work. But instead, we have Reclamation as the implementing agency, and their workers are the ones that build the habitats and maintain them,” said Neuwerth. “That’s really helped us keep the cost down. And I think it just makes a lot of sense to have one of the parties to the MSCP responsible for the actual on-the-ground work.”

The Trump administration has already signaled its intent to rescind at least parts of both the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). On April 16, it proposed a rule that would strip federal protections for habitat needed by threatened and endangered species to survive. Fully repealing the ESA and NEPA would take an act of Congress, but if that were to happen it would gut the primary drivers behind the creation of the MSCP.

Yet even if federal environmental and endangered species-protection laws were gutted, California’s Endangered Species and Environmental Quality acts (known as CESA and CEQA) — which are even more stringent than their federal equivalents — would almost certainly remain in place.

Under California law, “the California permittees have made certain commitments. If there was no more ESA and there was no more MSCP, those commitments would still exist,” said Neuwerth. “It’s tough to know exactly how it would all shake out, but I think CESA and CEQA provide a backstop in California that wouldn’t go away if the MSCP did.”

The Southwestern willow flycatcher, listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (Source: USFWS)

While Arizona and Nevada aren’t subject to similar state requirements, they may not be willing to step away from the program, either. Water agencies would face tremendous uncertainty in their long-term planning with a federal abandonment of the ESA and NEPA and the drawn-out legal challenges sure to follow — to say nothing of the fact that the MSCP, as originally agreed to by the participants, would still have a quarter-century left to run after the end of the current presidential administration.

“With the agreements we have in place, I don’t know that it would be all that easy for any administration to reel that back,” Harris said. “This program works, and it works well. It gives the feds what they need to be able to optimize their management flexibility for the entire Colorado River system — and particularly from Glen Canyon Dam downstream. And from a federal perspective, I think that’s got to be hugely important.”

“Having that environmental regulatory compliance package in place,” he added, “gives all the stakeholders — whether it’s the agricultural water users, the municipal water users or the federal agencies operating the system — a pretty significant measure of reliability and certainty for future operations.”

Regardless of what happens on the regulatory front, the MSCP’s participants are already contemplating potential big changes in how the Colorado River will be managed over roughly the next two decades. The current set of guidelines governing Colorado River operations expires next year, so states and the federal government are scrambling to agree on a new set of post-2026 operating guidelines.

That negotiation has proven particularly contentious and nearly broke down last year, so it’s far from clear what the final guidelines might look like — but they are nearly certain to include at least an additional 1 million acre-foot per year reduction in river flows below Hoover Dam. Regardless of what the exact numbers are, the MSCP’s steering committee is already anticipating the need to initiate a third, much more significant round of reconsultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sunrise at the Laguna Division Conservation Area near Yuma, Arizona, where Reclamation has worked on riparian and marsh restoration as part of the Lower Colorado River MSCP. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)

The 2022 and 2024 biological opinions gave MSCP participants “a pretty wide band of coverage” through 2028, but “that’s sort of a short-term patch,” said Neuwerth.

“We’d like to make sure that the umbrella going forward is big enough to cover us through 2055, so that requires a little bit of crystal-ball reading of what could be coming down the line,” she said. “We’re also struggling with the effects of climate change reducing the amount of water that’s available, and what does it look like for a recovery program to navigate through that?”

Despite the uncertainty over the program’s future, Neuwerth said the MSCP has already proven its worth. “We’ve seen over the past 20 years that we’re all pulling in the same direction.”

Now, at a time when tensions over future operations on the Colorado River are exceptionally high, MSCP “has provided us a lot of certainty, and it’s allowed us breathing room to do things like (water conservation and drought management) without having to scramble to put together compliance every time something new is happening on the river,” she said. “That’s really helped provide stability on the Lower Colorado River, and it’s one less thing to fight over if we’re making changes.”

Know someone who wants to stay connected to water in the West? Encourage them to sign up for Western Water and follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram.…

Read the full article at coyotegulch.blog

California breaks ground on critical flood protection project in the Central Valley

ca.gov
The Tenmile Slough levee segment is rated as the most critically deficient in the Central Valley levee system. Following historic flooding in 1997, DWR and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board identified significant flood risk in the San Joaquin River Basin. Federal, state and local partners worked together to evaluate and design the necessary improvements to respond to these risks.

The Lower San Joaquin River Project is a crucial part of the system-wide flood risk reduction effort outlined in the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan, which provides a comprehensive framework for improving flood protection in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins. This project represents a critical milestone in efforts to protect urban communities, one of many focus areas of the Plan.

“Protecting the people and economy of San Joaquin County from the devastation of extreme flooding is enormously important. Projects like this pay for themselves many times over as shifts between extreme wet and dry conditions become more common,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “California is committed to making these investments in flood infrastructure across the state to adapt to our new climate reality.”

The Lower San Joaquin River Project is just one of several major flood control projects in the state that collectively represent billions of dollars of new and improved infrastructure to protect communities, including:

The Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, a $600 million project that will improve flood protection for the communities of Pajaro and Watsonville. The State will cover all non-federal costs, approximately $210 million.
The American River Common Features Project, a $1.85 billion project that will improve flood protection for the greater Sacramento area and over 660,000 people.
 The recently completed Yuba Basin ($440 million) and Sutter Basin ($320 million) flood projects that reduced flood risk for 135,000 people.
The Governor, in partnership with the Legislature, has invested a total of $560 million over the past two state budgets to support flood response and projects to protect communities from future flooding.

“Levees play a vitally important role in safeguarding Delta communities, farmland, and water supplies,” said Senator Jerry McNerney (SD-5). “Yet many of the Delta’s 1,100 miles of levees need repair or reinforcement to protect against flooding due to climate change,” said Sen. Jerry McNerney, whose 5th Senate District includes the heart of the Delta region. “The Tenmile Slough levee project in Stockton is an essential step in fortifying our aging levee system, and I thank Governor Newsom, the California Department of Water Resources, the San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their support of and contribution to this crucial project.”

“Today marks a major milestone for the City of Stockton and our entire region. The start of construction on the Tenmile Slough levee is essential to delivering the flood protection our community needs and deserves,” said Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom (AD-13). “This pivotal step reflects our long-term commitment to public safety, climate resilience, and infrastructure investment. I’m proud to represent this district and to show what’s possible through strong federal, state, and local partnerships. This is what progress looks like: smart, united, forward-thinking investments that safeguard our communities and build a stronger future. We’re one step closer to delivering the safety and security our residents depend on.”

This project is a key part of Governor Newsom’s build more, faster agenda, delivering infrastructure upgrades and thousands of jobs across the state. Find projects building your community at build.ca.gov.…

Read the full article at ca.gov

California Can Dramatically Increase Its Water Supply

nationalreview.com
Two imminent federal actions promise to greatly influence water policy in California for the next several years. The first arises out of an executive order from President Donald Trump to the secretary of the interior to restart the work “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” The deadline for the secretary to report back to the president is April 20, a few days from now.

The second is, if anything, more significant. There are two finalists under consideration by the White ……

Read the full article at nationalreview.com

Scientists Chart Rapid Recharge Routes for Central Valley Groundwater

scienmag.com
In California’s Central Valley, groundwater depletion has reached a critical point, threatening the stability of communities, agricultural productivity, and delicate ecosystems in one of the most fertile and economically vital regions of the United States. This expansive valley, responsible for producing a substantial portion of the nation’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts, faces the relentless challenge of over-extracting its underground water reserves faster than natural processes can replenish them. However, recent advancements in geophysical imaging provide a promising pathway to address this escalating crisis by identifying where the valley’s land is most suited for recharging its aquifers.

The central dilemma in groundwater recharge strategies is the heterogeneous nature of subsurface sediments across the Central Valley. Beneath the surface lies a dynamic stratigraphy, ranging from porous sands and gravels—remnants of ancient streambeds capable of transmitting water rapidly—to dense clay layers that act as impermeable barriers to infiltration. These clay-rich strata not only prevent water from percolating downward but also cause excess water to linger on the surface, leading to evaporation losses and potential damage to crops sensitive to flooding.

To navigate this intricate underground architecture, the Stanford team utilized electromagnetic (EM) geophysical data collected via a helicopter-mounted sensor array. This system emits inducible magnetic fields, enabling the measurement of electrical conductivity variations up to approximately 300 meters below ground. Since different sediment types conduct electricity differently—clays tend to be conductive while sands and gravels resist electrical flow—this data can be interpreted to produce detailed maps of sediment composition and distribution. By overlapping these geophysical patterns with well log data that record subsurface geology, the researchers developed predictive models tying electrical conductivity profiles to recharge potential.

An innovative product of this research is “fastpath,” a web application designed to aid groundwater managers, farmers, and consultants in pinpointing zones of rapid water infiltration. Fastpath synthesizes EM data and sediment correlations into usable, spatially explicit maps that highlight “flow pathways,” or subsurface conduits where water can swiftly journey from the land surface to underlying aquifers without impediment. These flow paths are critical because thin layers of clay, which may not be easily discernible at larger scales, can drastically alter infiltration dynamics by forcing water to detour or pool.

The research team’s comprehensive analysis indicates that up to 13 million acres of the Central Valley exhibit characteristics favorable for groundwater recharge. Notably, the bulk of this suitable land coincides with active agricultural fields, including orchards, vineyards, and row crops. This overlap suggests an exciting opportunity to integrate groundwater recharge into existing land-use frameworks, leveraging periods of excess surface water—such as during wet seasons—to augment aquifer levels without compromising crop health.

A nuanced aspect of this study is its recognition that recharge suitability is context-dependent. Not all porous terrains are equal in their capacity for recharge; while some areas can allow rapid infiltration minimizing surface ponding, others might facilitate slower water movement, which, although still beneficial, requires careful management to avoid adverse impacts on crops. The fastpath application addresses this variability by offering users multiple metrics, including sand and gravel percentages, exact lengths of subsurface fastpaths, and distances to subsurface clay barriers or the water table. Such granularity provides stakeholders with tailored information essential for optimizing recharge projects, balancing the hydrological benefits while mitigating agricultural risks.

This research responds to a growing urgency in California, where overpumping has not only diminished the volume of recoverable groundwater but also triggered land subsidence—a recession of the ground surface caused by the compaction of drying sediments. Subsidence poses serious threats to infrastructure, reduces aquifer storage capacity, and disrupts ecosystems that depend on stable water tables. By identifying recharge hotspots, the Stanford team’s work offers an invaluable tool to recharge groundwater in a way that can ameliorate these cascading effects.

Importantly, the team’s datasets and analytical tools are publicly accessible via an online platform, fostering transparency and broad utility. Water agencies, researchers, policymakers, and landowners alike can harness these resources to inform strategic planning, design targeted recharge interventions, and ultimately contribute to a more sustainable water management regime in the Central Valley. This open-access approach underlines a commitment to democratizing scientific knowledge and empowering local actors in water stewardship.

The methodological approach combining helicopter-based electromagnetic sensing, well log calibration, and computational modeling marks a significant advancement in hydrogeophysical research. This multi-disciplinary integration enables a spatially comprehensive and finely resolved understanding of subsurface hydrology over one of the largest agricultural regions in the country. Such innovation is emblematic of how geophysical imaging technologies can move beyond academic novelty to practical, high-impact environmental solutions.

Looking ahead, senior author Rosemary Knight and her team plan to expand their work by applying electromagnetic data towards other pressing groundwater challenges. Potential research avenues include identifying optimal sites for active injection of water to reverse ongoing land subsidence and enhancing environmental flows that sustain freshwater ecosystems. These pursuits reinforce a broader vision: transforming voluminous geophysical datasets into actionable strategies that not only mitigate the current groundwater crisis but also foster resilience in the face of climate variability and human pressures.

Integrating such geophysical insights with agricultural practices could redefine land and water management paradigms in dry regions. The ability to identify and manage rapid subsurface flow paths could lead to innovative practices allowing farmers to recharge groundwater without sacrificing crop yields or soil health. This synergy between geoscience and agriculture charts a promising course towards sustainable resource management—an imperative as droughts intensify and water becomes ever more precious.

Ultimately, the Stanford team’s work embodies a pioneering leap in understanding and harnessing the Central Valley’s hidden hydrological potential. By illuminating the complex subterranean landscape through electromagnetic imaging, they have equipped stakeholders with the knowledge to rejuvenate vital water reserves, secure agricultural productivity, and safeguard environmental integrity—underscoring the transformative power of science in addressing one of California’s most urgent challenges.

Subject of Research: Groundwater recharge potential assessment in California’s Central Valley using electromagnetic geophysical imaging.

Article Title: Harnessing the Power of Geophysical Imaging to Recharge California’s Groundwater

Kang, S., Knight, R., et al. “Harnessing the Power of Geophysical Imaging to Recharge California’s Groundwater.” Earth and Space Science, vol. 17, Apr. 2025, DOI:10.1029/2024EA003958.
Knight, R., et al. Prior related work on Central Valley electrical conductivity interpretation. DOI:10.1111/gwat.12656.
Keywords: Groundwater recharge, Central Valley, California, Electromagnetic geophysical imaging, Aquifer sustainability, Subsurface sediments, Agricultural water management, Land subsidence, Hydrogeophysics, Fastpath application, Recharge mapping, Water resource resilience.…

Read the full article at scienmag.com

No water in wine country: How SLO County residents survive when their wells go dry

San Luis Obispo Tribune
No water in wine country: How SLO County residents survive when their wells go dry

Two scruffy dogs spilled onto the porch when Candy Nachel opened her front door. She stooped to pick up a fluffy Chihuahua named Poppy, then looked out across the property east of Templeton that she’s owned since 1996.
Each year, she watches her neighbor’s vineyards grow heavy with wine grapes. Each year, pickers toil to harvest the bruise-purple fruit fattened with water from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.
But Nachel can’t enjoy the view.
In fact, these days, she can’t even enjoy a glass of wine. Because it reminds her that the vineyards have water — while she has none.

The problem is, with so many people sipping at a limited source, the waters of that giant subterranean lake are receding from the underground shoreline.
When that happens, the shorter straws in the shallower areas — typically those owned by individual homeowners — begin sucking nothing but dirt and dust.
Meanwhile, farms and vineyards that typically own deeper wells can still reach the dwindling water supply in the basin.

California’s longtime water policies give property owners the right to pump groundwater for “beneficial uses,” despite the fact that groundwater isn’t contained by property lines. Those with the funds to dig deeper wells are able to access water — reaching into the supply that their neighbors might need but can’t afford to reach.
Since the summer of 2014, 337 dry wells in the Paso basin have been reported to the California Department of Water Resources Courtesy of San Luis Obispo County Dry wells in Paso Robles wine countryDeep in wine country, Nachel lives among the vineyards on El Pomar Drive with her son and 12-year-old granddaughter.

Her 5-acre property sits on the western edge of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, a shallow area where “the aquifer feathers out to nothing,” Reely said.
Wells in this part of the basin often go dry first, because there’s less water there to begin with, he said.
Originally, these properties were sold to cattle ranchers, dry farmers and residential developers whose operations didn’t require as much water, Reely said.

“It felt comfortable, where somebody could come and visit and you weren’t taking your shoes off at the door,” Nachel said. “That, to me, is important.”
All was good until 2017, when her first well went dry, so she connected to another well on the property.
About two years later, that well dried up too, and she discovered that her third well didn’t contain enough water for use — so she had to start ordering water.

Sometimes, the supply isn’t enough to last the whole month.
“When I run out of water, when I’m waiting for a water truck, I feel confined,” she said. “Honestly, it feels like somebody’s got me in shackles.”
It’s also forced her to change her habits.

Nachel washes dishes differently now — soaping all of the dishes before briefly running them under the faucet. She takes short showers and only does bulk loads of laundry.
“It’s just changed my life in every way,” Nachel said. “You don’t waste water on things that aren’t necessary, and if they are necessary, you’re just careful on how you use it.”

The limited water supply also affected one of her favorite hobbies: gardening.
That used to be her preferred way to decompress after a long day. When her wells held water, she tended to more than 100 rose bushes. When her wells ran dry, she ripped the rose bushes out.
Nachel even had to close her boarding kennel, because she didn’t have enough water to bathe the dogs or wash down the facility.

“The solution is we have to reduce pumping,” Reely said. “It’s achievable.”
San Luis Obispo County, the city of Paso Robles, the Shandon-San Juan Water District and the Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water District recently formed a Joint Powers Authority, which will have the power to levy water use fees in all of the basin except areas served by a fifth entity, the San Miguel Community Services District.
Entities that use water commercially, like farms, vineyards and breweries, will be charged the fee on their property taxes. Domestic well owners will not be charged.

Reely hopes the fees will motivate growers to make their operations more efficient so they can reduce their water use, he said. Meanwhile, those fees will fund programs designed to balance the basin.
One such program is the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Multibenefit Irrigated Land Repurposing Program, also known as the MILR Program.
Through the program, a staff member will support irrigators who want to pivot to farming practices that use less water. This could look like changing the property’s irrigation system so it is more efficient, changing farming practices, or converting irrigated farmland to dry land farming, open space or a project like a solar farm.

Right now, it’s too expensive to connect to the State Water Project or use recycled water to recharge the basin, but those projects could become viable in the future, Reely said.
If farmers don’t voluntarily reduce pumping over the next few years, the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies governing the basin may need to implement pumping restrictions — an action authorized by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
“We have that hammer if we ever need it. We just are hoping — and have been working towards a strategy where — we don’t pull that hammer out of the tool kit,” Reely said.

Carol Rowland used to garden with her late husband Harold Rowland. Now water is in short supply. She struggles with sinking water level in the well at her Creston area home. Courtesy photo Creston resident had water before the vineyards arrivedLike Nachel, Creston resident Carol Rowland, 84, also misses gardening.
As the water levels in her well dwindled, she stopped irrigating her experimental garden, where she grew flowers, plump heirloom vegetables and dye plants that she used to color her home-woven tapestries.

The 80-foot-deep well on her 14-acre O’Donovan Road property goes dry intermittently, and she’s worried she’ll soon have to start buying water.

“It’s just really scary, because I live on such a fixed income,” she said.

Her husband bought the house in 1975, and she only started having problems with her well during the past few years, she said.
Sure, the well is shallow. But “it used to be fine for us before all the vineyards came in,” she said. “It’s just so unfair.”
Unlike the El Pomar area, the Creston area of the groundwater basin is in good shape, Reely said.

Meanwhile, the Wonderful Co., which owns Justin Vineyards, planted drought-tolerant rootstocks in Paso Robles and used precision irrigation to avoid wasting water, according to Justin Vineyards director of grower and community relations Molly Scott.
“We are constantly focused on the long-term sustainability of the basin and participating in efforts to protect it,” she said in a statement.
But the Wonderful Co. declined to share how much water they apply to each vineyard, so there’s no way to tell how much water is saved by their efforts.

Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles is owned by the Resnicks’ Wonderful Co. Courtesy photo SLO County Farm Bureau executive director Paul Clark said the agriculture industry acknowledges that it uses the vast majority of water pumped from the basin. As a result, many farmers and vintners are prepared to pay the water use fees proposed by the Joint Powers Authority.
If those fees are passed, “agriculture is going to be paying the lion’s share of the cost” of improving the basin’s sustainability, Clark said.

He expects the fees to prompt a reduction in irrigation, but he can’t promise that this will improve water levels significantly enough to restore dry wells.
“Groundwater is a very complicated, and, at times, a very mysterious science. So it’s hard to say specifically, if you do x than y is going to happen,” Clark said. “It’s going to take awhile for these areas to recover.”
Single mom searching for solutionsSara Maciel never leaves the faucet running at her Paso Robles home.

She takes short showers, limits water use while brushing her teeth or doing the dishes and only runs full loads of laundry. She thinks about water every day — and that’s because she doesn’t have any.
Maciel’s 450-foot well went dry two years ago.
Now, she pays $500 per month to have water delivered, which she stores in a 2,500-gallon storage tank. She waits in suspense each month for the tank to run out before calling in a new delivery.
“When it does run out, it’s, like, that gut-wrenching feeling,” Maciel said. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen. You turn on the faucet, and there’s just nothing.”

When Sara Maciel’s 450-foot well went dry two years ago, she started ordering water deliveries to her house. Courtesy of Sara Maciel

Maciel moved to the 1-acre property on Jardine Road about six years ago with her three children, now ages 10, 15 and 17.
At first, her well dried up during the summer and was replenished by winter rains. But for the past two years, it stayed dry.

“The situation for me right now is a little scary,” she said.
There’s a residential subdivision in the Jardine area full of homes that rely on individual wells, Reely said.
Homes on the southern end of the subdivision were built during the 1950s when water levels were higher, so wells were only built to be about 200 feet deep, he said. Many of those wells have now gone dry.

As the subdivision developed north, people drilled deeper wells that can still access water. The northern part of the subdivision also borders a river that recharges the basin, providing more support for their wells.
Meanwhile, the Jardine area — like other rural neighborhoods in the North County — is surrounded by vineyards, Reely said.
Maciel blamed dwindling water levels on agricultural pumping.

Could the county pay for water delivery?All three homeowners The Tribune spoke to urged the county to support a water delivery service for people with dry wells.

Maciel supports a water-use fee, as long as the rates are reasonable. The fee could fund a program that reimburses domestic well users when they have to buy water, she said.
“I’m just wanting to survive,” Maciel said. “I’m not trying to get rich. I’m just trying to keep water for my family.”
Similarly, Nachel urged the county to operate a water truck that delivers water to residents with dry wells for free — or at least at a reasonable price.

“Nobody’s making the vineyards stand up to the plate and go to their neighbor and say, ‘I’m sorry. I understand that my pumps could have made your wells go dry,’” Nachel said. “None of them are taking accountability.”

Stephanie Zappelli is the environment reporter for The Tribune. She grew up in San Diego, and graduated from Cal Poly with a journalism degree. When not writing, Stephanie enjoys reading and exploring the outdoors.…

Read the full article at San Luis Obispo Tribune

‘Abundance’ is the best way to Trump-proof California

Orange County Register
SACRAMENTO—Up until the 1970s, California was a state known for its commitment to boundless opportunities, with the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown governorship reflective of the can-do spirit that drew people here from across the world. Given the degree to which modern California is noted for its ineffectiveness, wastefulness and regulatory sclerosis, it’s difficult to imagine a California that took its Golden State moniker seriously.

Brown “envisioned a future in which economic growth would be driven by a network of state-of-the-art freeways to move people, reservoirs, and canals to capture and transport water and intellectual capital from low-cost institutions of higher education. He sold that vision to the public and, in doing so, as the late historian Kevin Starr wrote, putting California on ‘the cutting edge of the American experiment,’” per a Hoover Institution retrospective. The state grew dramatically as a result.

The Brown administration built most of the State Water Project in less time than it would take to complete an Environmental Impact Report these days. California officials still have big dreams, of course, but they are more of the social-engineering variety than the civil-engineering type. Brown built freeways that people actually use, whereas today’s big project is a pointless high-speed rail line that’s way over budget and unlikely to serve any serious need.

It took 24 years to build a new east span of the Bay Bridge—and it came in at 2,500% over budget. California can’t even house its population now thanks largely to environmental rules, no-growth restrictions, urban-growth boundaries and other government regulations. Yet California lawmakers show no appetite to reform the biggest impediment, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), except on a piecemeal basis. Many liberals are frustrated—and conservatives now are the ones most likely to tout the Pat Brown era.

But a funny thing is happening as progressives struggle for a response to a revanchist MAGA movement that shows its own nativist hostility to economic growth and opportunity. Many of the Left’s more thoughtful voices are essentially re-embracing the types of pro-growth policies that were once a mainstay among Democrats such as Pat Brown. Ironically, it was Brown’s son, Jerry, who during his first terms as governor (he actually was a good governor in his more recent iteration) pitched the “era of limits” nonsense that mucked up the works.

Like all burgeoning political movements, this Pat-Brown-style liberalism has a name: the Abundance Movement. We’ve seen some signs of its emergence. For instance, the YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement has scored myriad legislative victories as it promotes the construction of new housing within the urban footprint. The new book, “Abundance,” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson have sparked the idea’s widespread acceptance mostly among frustrated liberals.

It’s music to my not-so-liberal ears, as the subhead on my 2020 book about water infrastructure uses that term: “California can meet its water needs by promoting abundance rather than managing scarcity.” But the concept applies well beyond the water issue.

In his New York Times column, Klein nails the importance of a politics based on abundance—and on the failure of Democratic-run states to live up to any of their grandiose promises: “This is the policy failure haunting blue states. It has become too hard to build and too expensive to live in the places where Democrats govern. It is too hard to build homes. It is too hard to build clean energy. It is too hard to build mass transit. The problem isn’t technical: We know how to build apartment complexes and solar panel arrays and train lines. The problem is the rules and the laws and political cultures that govern construction in many blue states.”

Per Politico, Gov. Gavin Newsom interviewed Klein in his latest podcast. But Newsom plays it too clever by half. “You pick on, understandably, San Francisco. But you can look at almost any city, including a Republican-held city like Huntington Beach, and these same rules and restrictions apply there and the same frustrations,” Newsom said. Well, sure, I’ve ridiculed Huntington Beach’s conservative majority for enacting anti-growth policies—but they fester mainly in liberal cities and states.

One cannot build anything here without navigating a maze of regulatory provisions that delay progress, spark litigation or trigger bureaucratic reviews. As Klein added, “In 2023, California saw a net loss of 268,000 residents; in Illinois, the net loss was 93,000; in New York, 179,000. Why are they leaving? In surveys, the dominant reason is simply this: The cost of living is too high.”

Democrats would have a stronger rebuke to Trumpism if our public services were the national model rather than a laughingstock—and if our leaders learned to value the private sector and not simply build bigger government. Abundance sounds like the right ticket—but only if state officials can return to Pat-Brown-style governance rather than use the term as a talking point.…

Read the full article at Orange County Register