Newsom announces hatchery upgrades as he promotes salmon-killing Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir

In an apparent effort to boost his increasingly tarnished environmental image, California Governor Gavin Newsom on May 8 announced upgrades to 21 state fish hatcheries to “boost salmon populations” — at the same time that he is promoting water policies that have driven Central Valley salmon populations closer and closer to extinction.  

“The project helps build the California salmon and trout supply, which are central to the health of California’s biodiversity but also indigenous peoples, communities, and the state’s multimillion-dollar fishing industry,” Newsom claimed.

“Our salmon populations are not only an important part of our state’s biodiversity, but a rich component of our history and heritage,” Newsom gushed. “We have a responsibility to prepare for the future and protect the ecosystems and people whose well-being are connected to the continued success of these important species.” 

In a similar vein, CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham stated, “As climate disruption continues to reshape California’s landscape, CDFW is committed to innovative action to support our state’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them. The Climate Induced Hatcheries Upgrade Project is a roadmap to ensure that our state-operated hatcheries can meet the challenges of the future while promoting ecological health and economic vitality.”

The “Climate Induced Hatcheries Upgrade Project” includes a “thorough assessment of each hatchery’s water supply, fish-rearing infrastructure and operational efficiency,” according to the Governor's Office.

Key findings and proposed upgrades include:

• Resilient Infrastructure: Replacement of aging plumbing and valving systems to prevent costly emergency repairs and ensure reliable operations into the future. Many state-operated hatcheries are more than 80 years old.
• Enhanced Water Management and Treatment: Implementation of partial recirculating aquaculture systems, water treatment, and temperature management systems to reduce water demand and improve efficiency, while reducing pathogens that can cause disease.
• Energy and Sustainability Innovations: Integration of advanced control systems and passive energy generation to minimize water use, operational costs and environmental impacts.
• Climate-Driven Design: Infrastructure upgrades tailored to withstand more extreme climate events projected over the next 20 to 40 years, ensuring production remains sustainable.

I support these long overdue upgrades to the California fish hatchery system. But without cold, clear water released from upstream reservoirs and dams at the right times to get juvenile salmon downstream to the ocean and adult fish upstream to spawn both hatchery-based Fall Chinook Salmon runs and the struggling Winter and Spring Chinook runs will perish.

Under his watch, Gavin Newsom has overseen the worst-ever collapse of salmon and Delta fish populations in the history of the state, as I have documented in article after article. Commercial salmon fishing is closed for the third year in a row, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook populations. 

The winter and spring Chinook runs of the Sacramento River have also been hammered by massive water diversions and water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness. 

The data from the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) documents the abysmal situation that Sacramento River Chinook salmon, once the driver of the West Coast salmon fishery, are now in.

Between 1996-2005 the average return for fall-run Chinook on the mainstem Sacramento River was 79,841 spawning salmon. In 2023 that number fell drastically to only 3,560 salmon – a 95% decline, according to an analysis by the Golden State Salmon Association.

Spring-run Chinook have also experienced a staggering 95% decline due to a lack of cold water flows in Central Valley salmon rivers. The average wild and hatchery spring-run return plummeted from 28,238 fish in 2021 to just 1,231 salmon in 2023. 

And the Delta's once abundant pelagic (open water) fish species have declined by over 95 percent. The Delta smelt has not been found in the last seven CDFW fall surveys of the Delta - while the longfin smelt and other pelagic species continue in free fall.

But rather than do the right thing and correct the untenable situation with salmon and other fish, the Governor is committed to a mad plan to make things even worse. He is pushing forward with the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir projects, along with the voluntary agreements, that will seal the doom of salmon populations and the Bay-Delta Ecosystem.

Despite the Department of Water Resources claim that the Delta Tunnel will not increase water exports from the Delta, testimony of DWR engineer Amardeep Singh reveals that the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) will increase water deliveries from the Delta by 22%.

“DCP operation will not decrease water supply for Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors and will increase water supply for SWP Table A contractors by 22 percent,” he states on page 2 of his testimony.

Then on page 20 of his testimony, Singh again clearly states, “Finally, DCP operation will not decrease water supply for CVP contractors and will increase water supply for SWP Table A contractors by 22 percent.”

Moreover, during drought periods when fish are already strained by low flows and high temperatures, the DCP would increase deliveries by 24%: static1.squarespace.com/...

The Delta Tunnel would be used in conjunction with the proposed Sites Reservoir to export even more water out of the Sacramento River when what the ecosystem needs is more water for salmon — and less water diverted to agribusiness and Southern California water agencies.

The upgrading of the state’s salmon hatcheries is good news, but it must be accompanied by Newsom showing the courage to end his campaigns to build the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir — and start obeying a plethora of state and federal laws protecting the ecosystem by actually providing the long-needed water for the salmon and other fish.

Follow the Big Ag Money!

Newsom’s campaign to build the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir may have something to do with the fact that Beverly Hills Billionaires Linda and Stewart Resnick, owners of the Wonderful Company and the largest orchard fruit growers in the world, are among the largest contributors to Governor Newsom and hosted his 2022 anti-recall campaign in a fundraising letter.

The Resnicks have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022.

Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.

But the Resnicks are also huge contributors to the University of California system. In 2019 they made a donation of $750 million to CalTech and in 2022 made a $50 million donation to UC Davis, in addition to contributing millions to UCLA, CSU Fresno and other universities over the years.  

The Resnicks have pushed for increased water exports from the Delta for agribusiness and the construction of the Delta Tunnel for many years.

The Resnicks have donated many millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican parties and to candidates for both parties over the years. They were instrumental in the creation of the Monterey Amendment, a 1994 pact between Department of Water Resources and State Water Project contractors, that allowed them to obtain their 57 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank: https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/monterey-amendment