The Next Chapter of California’s Water Wars Has Begun.
Newsom and Brown wade into California water wars to delay plan to help fish – – November 7, 2018
Brown, Newsom send State Water Board letter requesting to delay Wednesday’s vote – – November 6, 2018
Short Video Highlights of the Rally at the Capitol in Sacramento
Protesting the Water Board’s Plan to Steal up to 60% of Our Valley’s Water. What Severe Negative Impacts will that have? WATCH LOCAL LEADERS BOTH REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS COME TOGETHER FIGHTING FOR OUR VALLEY. Like This Page and Join Our Fight. #FightTheWaterGrab #JoinTheWaterGrabFight
July 6, 2018 – – Assemblymember Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) released the following statement condemning today’s announcement from the State Water Resources Control Board to ignore decade’s worth of science and public opinion by adopting radical new requirements to seize and waste critically needed San Joaquin Valley water supplies.
“The State Water Resources Control Board’s decision today is the first shot fired in the next chapter of California’s water wars. The board has chosen to create, in their own words, ‘a permanent regulatory drought’ and shrugged off our concerns as ‘significant but unavoidable’.”
This is what theft looks like. A small group of special interests have spent years plotting one of the largest water takes in our state’s history. They attempted and failed to change the law and win in court, so instead they have infiltrated government itself. They positioned their allies to influence the process from within and spent hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to prop up their house of cards. Despite entire agencies at their disposal and seemingly unlimited funds, no amount of trickery can obscure the truth – their fish first philosophy will decimate our region, poison our drinking water, and provide no environmental benefit what-so-ever.
These special interests are desperate to claim the moral high ground and demonize our entire region. They speak about the people of the San Joaquin Valley as if we are parasites on the land and demand we apologize for our very existence.
They do this because without the zealous drumbeat of environmentalism on their side, the truth would have an opportunity to surface. People would begin to question the wisdom of poisoning the drinking water of poor immigrant communities or the sense in decimating the farms that feed the nation and fields that make California’s farm-to-fork movement possible.
People would question why the proponents of a plan designed to save fish cannot demonstrate any meaningful benefit to those very fish or why the questions and concerns of a million people do not deserve even a halfhearted response. People might even question whether it is really environmentally friendly to sacrifice the health of one environment for the health of another.
They have left us no alternative. We will continue to negotiate with the best interests of the Valley at heart, but, if the state continues to violate the principles of good faith, a decades worth of lawsuits are about to begin.
The final public comment period is now open until July 27th with final adoption scheduled for August 21st . Please submit your comments to tell the State Water Board exactly how their plan will impact your community. They have made the comment period short to try to keep us quiet. Let’s not let them.”
Comment Alert!
Please email your comments directly to the Water Board to this address and help fight this water grab:
LSJR-SD-Comments@waterboards.ca.gov
“Thousands of local residents, businesses, school officials, and elected leaders of our area have signed letters and petitions, attended meetings, and joined together to speak out against the proposed state water grab. I made a commitment to you to keep you informed on water issues impacting our area and wanted to update you on the latest developments.”

Unimpaired Flows Proposal
Voluntary Settlement Discussions

Recent Meetings

Water Legislation Update
Information supplied to Governor Babbitt
COMMUNITY WEBSITES ON WATER FLOWS PROPOSAL
Stop The Regulatory Drought
Save The Stan
Worth Your Fight
Merced River Safe Plan
Water Grab Videos
— Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse warns water board
Gray persists in Bay-Delta Plan criticism – to the last day
Hundreds rise in defense of the region’s rights to water
CORRESPONDENCE TO THE WATER BOARD FROM ASSEMBLYMAN GRAY
Correspondence to Les Grober – State Water Resources Control Board
LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE WATER BOARD