Stop the Extinction Crisis in the Bay

Governor Newsom is subsidizing California’s industrial agriculture at the expense of the Bay’s fish, wildlife, and water quality and the people who depend on a healthy Bay.

We're taking out more water than any ecosystem anywhere has been able to withstand."

FELICIA MARCUS, Past Chair, California State Water Board; Current member, Baykeeper Advisory Board

San Francisco Bay desperately needs a plan for sustainable water use that protects our fish, wildlife, water quality and the communities that depend on it. Instead, Governor Newsom is giving away water the Bay needs, subsidizing industrial agribusinesses at every turn.

As a result, California will not have a salmon fishing season this year; Native American tribes will continue to suffer from the destruction of their fishing culture; six of the Bay’s native fish species are listed as endangered, and more may join that list soon.

If Governor Newsom doesn’t stop blocking action, San Francisco Bay will no longer support the fish and wildlife species that people have relied on for thousands of years.

Read Full Background >

Please join us by signing the letter below to ask the governor to direct the Water Board to complete its Bay-Delta plan now, for the health of the Delta, the Bay, and everyone who depends on them.

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Dear Governor Newsom,

San Francisco Bay is in the throes of a man-made crisis. Six Bay fish species are officially listed as endangered, and the state’s salmon fishery will close in 2023 for only the second time in the state’s history. In dry years, your agencies have slashed environmental protections, exposing native fish populations to extreme harm and leaving flows in some rivers so low that toxic algae make the water unfit for drinking or swimming. In wet years, you have encouraged state agencies to waive environmental protections again, preventing fish, wildlife, and water quality from recovering.

Our native fish need rivers flowing with cold rushing water to survive. And many other creatures need fish to survive. People are also affected. California’s fleet of small salmon fishing boats will be idled this year and indigenous Californians are being deprived both of an important food source and their cultural heritage.

The cause of the crisis is clear, and so is the solution. Too much of the fresh water that once flowed from rivers in the Sierra Nevada to the Delta and Bay has been diverted. In an average year, more than half of the Bay’s inflow is diverted—and about 80% of that goes to industrial agriculture. This unsustainable demand leaves too little water in our rivers to support spawning and migrating fish, and too little cold water behind reservoirs to sustain fish eggs as they incubate.

San Francisco Bay needs a plan that’s based on science rather than the demands of powerful water districts.  For years, you have tried to negotiate a compromise with the state’s largest agricultural water districts – negotiations that excluded input from environmental, tribal, and Delta communities. The resulting proposals – termed “voluntary agreements” – defy science and deny the need to reduce the state’s unsustainable water demands.

The State Water Board’s Bay-Delta Plan is intended to prevent the kind of ecosystem collapse we are now witnessing. The Board has been trying to update standards in this plan for over a decade – but you have blocked these efforts in favor of voluntary settlements with big water districts. Science-based updates would set aside more water to maintain our rivers and fish and force cities and agricultural operators to use water more efficiently.
 
The State Water Board can avert a crisis in San Francisco Bay—in fact, it is legally required to do so. Please stop blocking the State Water Board’s update of environmental safeguards for the Bay. Instead, you should encourage the Water Board to complete a science-based update of the Bay-Delta Plan quickly and then immediately implement the strong protections our Bay desperately needs. 
 
Sincerely,

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