President Donald Trump lost no time Monday in advancing his agenda for California’s water supply with a “presidential action” intended to send more Delta water south to millions of Southern Californians and San Joaquin Valley farms. The memo calls on the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior to develop a new plan within 90 days “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.” Entitled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” Trump’s order calls for reinstating 2019 regulations drafted by his first administration. At stake are the rules that guide operation of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project, the two systems that deliver water from Northern California rivers to San Joaquin Valley farmers, Southern California residents and other water users in the southern half of the state.

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