FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2025
Contacts:
Barry Nelson, Senior Policy Advisor, Golden State Salmon Association, 510-340-1685
Scott Artis, Executive Director, Golden State Salmon Association, 925-550-9208
Sacramento, Calif. — Today, the Newsom Administration released an “Adaptation Strategy” for the State Water Project. This document is intended to lay the groundwork for the anticipated release of budget trailer bills to rewrite state law to push Governor Newsom’s massive 36-foot-diameter Delta tunnel and to eliminate the State Water Board’s obligation to prepare a CEQA Environmental Impact Report analyzing the salmon-killing Voluntary Agreements (VAs).
Several facts jump out to California’s salmon fishing community. The Newsom Administration proposes to increase total State Water Project Delta diversions by 329,000-425,000 acre-feet per year. This massive increase in water pumping would be made possible if the Water Board adopts the Voluntary Agreements. The VAs are designed to set the stage for the Delta tunnel by stripping the Bay-Delta Plan of standards to protect the river flows that salmon depend on. The VAs are a scam that would cost state and federal taxpayers $2 billion to support a plan to make the Bay-Delta ecosystem and salmon runs sicker than they are today. Most of that money would go to the water interests that wrote the VAs. The VAs would also set the stage for massive increases in diversions by other water projects. In typical style, the Newsom Administration failed to ask for any input on this document from the salmon fishing community or other stakeholders fighting to save a collapsing Bay-Delta and salmon runs.
This plan – and the Governor’s trailer bills – would be a death blow to the wild spawning salmon runs that support California’s commercial and recreational salmon fishing industry. That’s why we say ‘hell no’ to the Newsom water scam.
Scott Artis, Executive Director, Golden State Salmon Association
Related reading:
- State Water Project Adaptation Strategy: Reducing Vulnerabilities to Climate Change
- Shell Game – How the Bay-Delta Voluntary Agreements Set the Stage for New Water Grabs by the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir