San Francisco Examiner-
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued President Donald Trump’s administration in federal court in San Francisco Thursday to challenge biological reports justifying increased water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Central California.
Becerra filed the lawsuit on the day after Trump at a ceremony in Bakersfield signed a presidential memorandum supporting the development and delivery of more water supplies in the Central Valley. The memorandum and a related operations plan by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rely on biological opinions in which two federal agencies concluded that increased water diversion from the delta would not harm three endangered or threatened fish species: the Delta smelt, Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead trout.
Becerra filed the suit on behalf of the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the people of California.
The California Right 