SACRAMENTO, California — The chinook salmon has upset a quiet truce in the California water wars between Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump.
Last week, when the winter-run chinook got caught in pumps that funnel water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farms and cities, California officials dialed down water deliveries in line with the state’s endangered species rules. Their federal counterparts didn’t restrict the flows — at least not at first.
The fishy foul-up started when officials with the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation didn’t immediately agree on what to do when the salmon got caught up in the pumps beyond an allowable limit. State officials argued their joint rules warranted an immediate ramping down of pumping, while Reclamation staff pushed for more analysis of whether the changes would actually help the fish population, according to two people granted anonymity to protect sensitive conversations.
The two sides eventually aligned after some heated back-and-forth, they said.
