SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom is making moves to keep control of California’s water — and protect the state’s endangered species from a potential second Trump administration.
With federal and state officials in the midst of renegotiating how they manage a 400-mile system of reservoirs, pumps and canals that moves water out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to deliver it to taps and farms across the state, California water officials are taking steps to adopt guidelines from the state’s own wildlife officials rather than federal ones.
Lenny Grimaldo, the Department of Water Resources’ State Water Project environmental director, said in an email the decision to seek a separate state permit to operate the system, rather than a joint state-federal one, was “to ensure [California Endangered Species Act] coverage remains in place even if there is a future change in federal law.”…