Bill could lead to higher flows on Modesto-area rivers. Local lawmaker is fighting it
Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, is maneuvering against a bill that seeks higher flows on local rivers.
Assembly Bill 2639 would set a Dec. 31, 2023, deadline for the State Water Resources Control Board to complete its plan for tributaries to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They include the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers.
The decision would follow decades of wrangling over whether fish should get more water on the lower rivers at the expense of farms and cities.
The bill, by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, also would bar the board from issuing new rights for water storage if the plan is not completed. This could complicate plans to add or expand reservoirs in watersheds feeding the Delta.
Gray has offered an amendment that would keep the measure from going into effect “if it was found to hurt the drinking water supplies of disadvantaged communities,” his staff said by email Tuesday.
Gray has a history of disagreeing with fellow Democrats on certain water issues. He also supports “voluntary agreements,” under which diverters would modestly boost river levels while enhancing fish habitat with nonflow measures.
“My constituents won’t be sacrificial lambs,” Gray said in a news release. “Bureaucrats in Sacramento have already decided that the devastation caused by the state water grab to the San Joaquin Valley is ‘significant, but unavoidable.’ Now some in the Legislature are trying to advance a bill that will cut off negotiations to reach the voluntary agreements that are supported by local farmers, irrigation districts and the Newsom administration.”
Quirk’s bill has passed three Assembly committees but will fail if not approved by the full chamber by Friday, May 27. That’s the deadline for Assembly bills to move on to the Senate.
Quirk has support from a long list of environmental and fishing groups, among them the Tuolumne River Trust. The opponents include irrigation districts in Stanislaus County and elsewhere.
