California’s fertile Sacramento delta region has long been central to debates over how to best manage California’s water resources and agricultural lands. But as the region recovers from the pandemic, many residents are more concerned with immediate problems like power outages and business growth.
By Natalie Hanson, Courthouse News Service
Aleida Suarez and Ruby Fowler left Seattle about three years ago, settling in Isleton, a city along the Sacramento delta in Sacramento County.
It was a beautiful place to relocate, the partners said in a February interview at their coffee shop. They set up Isleton Coffee Company on the city’s Main Street, a cozy business where they also allow local artists to make and display their pieces.
The watershed of California’s Sacramento delta — officially known as the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — is the largest freshwater estuary on the West Coast and one of the Golden State’s most prized natural zones. A National Heritage Area, it offers a variety of wetland habitats and also serves as “California’s cornucopia” and “one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world,” according to the National Park Service.
Formed at the crossroads of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, the delta flows west into the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco Bay. As it moves downstream, it sustains more than 23 million Californians, hundreds of species of wildlife and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.
Still, for those who live and work along the 57,000 acres of waterways, controversy over how to manage the delta’s levees, land and ecosystems has long been a part of this area’s legacy.
That’s particularly true now, amid big proposed changes to the area’s land and water use.
State officials recently approved an environmental study on the Delta Conveyance Project, a plan to add a 35-foot-wide, 45-mile tunnel to speed up collection of water and add to the state’s storage following years of drought. Officials hope the project will improve supplies that have drastically dwindled due to climate change, but some fear it could draw water from local farms and further deplete the area’s wetland habitats.
Delta residents are also nervously watching as momentum builds behind the “California Forever” project — a plan to build a brand-new “utopian” city for around 400,000 residents between San Francisco and Sacramento.
To bypass 1984 protections to keep agricultural land from being turned into urban space, that plan needs approval this year from Solano County voters. The project developers have been holding a series of town halls to prepare for that vote, which has been the center of contentious pushback from many Californians.
“I think the community is more concerned about the tunnels,” Suarez said, referring to the coming Delta Conveyance Project. But California Forever is also rattling nerves here: Big Silicon Valley money is behind the project, and it’s poised to use up even more of the delta’s precious water supply.
“Ecologically, we’re concerned about our water,” Suarez said. “As [the] climate changes, the water is getting saltier,” as lower freshwater levels led to higher relative levels of salt and other contaminants.
Still, for Suarez, Fowler and many other residents, the biggest challenges are more immediate — including California’s many power outages due to aging, overwhelmed infrastructure in rural areas.
“The whole area’s concerned about flooding, but we’re more concerned about power outages,” Suarez added. “We have outages even when the weather is good!”
More than just an ecological treasure, the 700-square mile delta is also a critical resource. State and federal pumps move water from Northern California reservoirs south, helping supply more than two-thirds of Californians with drinking water. Much of that water travels through the delta.
On its way to population centers on the coast, the delta also helps irrigate millions of acres of agriculture which produce about 45% of U.S. fruits and vegetables. Its 1,100 miles of levees, many dating back to the 1800s, protect more than 600,000 residents as well as agricultural lands and infrastructure.
Many in the delta are not as politically involved as other Californians, according to a 2023 survey. That could be changing, as big plans for this region have prompted public outcry — and sometimes, court fights.
In 2022, a coalition of California tribal nations and environmental justice groups sued the California Water Resources Board, accusing it of discriminating against several Native tribes and communities of color.
Water officials have failed to protect water quality in this important estuary, the lawsuit says, and have intentionally blocked tribal members and residents of color in some cities from giving input on major decisions affecting its ecosystem. Last August, the EPA announced it would investigate claims of civil rights violations in the management of the delta.
Ron Stork, senior policy advocate at the Sacramento organization Friends of the River, said that management of the delta affects everyone in its path, including those living in the watershed habitat.
Long involved in water policy, Stork opposes converting the lower portion of the McCloud River and the proposed Temperance Flat Dam on the San Joaquin River gorge — part of another separate effort to divert the delta’s flows. He’s also concerned that rising river levels will soon pose a threat to urban communities which over time have encroached on levee banks.
If high flows grow uncontrollable due to future storms, cities like Tracy, Stockton, Brentwood and Discovery Bay would all be directly in harm’s way, he said. Stockton in particular was once protected from major flows by San Joaquin tributaries bypassing its urban zones but today is dependent on the maintenance of the San Joaquin flood management system, Stork said.
“An army of lawyers can’t fix that,” he said. “Some things you really can’t build your way out of, unless you’re willing to move infrastructure around which most communities won’t do.”
Some elected leaders share these concerns. When the Department of Water Resources approved the $32 billion Delta Conveyance Project, Sacramento County Supervisor Pat Hume, who also leads the Delta Counties Coalition, said the plan was “deeply flawed” and would not improve the state’s water supplies.
In an interview in January, Hume said residents are concerned with the Conveyance Project’s high price tag and fear it could take 4,000 to 5,000 acres of farmland. He said that although the levees held up well through the 2022 winter storms and last year’s earthquakes, the state ought to focus more on improving them and developing above and below ground storage to conserve and reuse water.
“We consider the delta a special place that is worth saving and we see this project exacerbating the challenges we will face as we address climate change and more extreme weather situations,” he said. “Our goal is not to be obstructionist, but to ask that we can figure out a way that we can work together on more forward thinking projects.”
Patricia Schifferle — director of the environmental group Pacific Advocates and a former official in the state’s Assembly Office of Research — said she disagrees with the state focusing on the conveyance project. She calls it an expensive, storage-focused approach that will move clean water out of the delta ecosystem.
That diversion of quality waterwill worsen irrigation of toxic soils in the Central Valley, which return to the San Joaquin River and cause mutations in river fish, Schifferle said.
The state water board echoed these concerns in 2018, reporting that water diverted for farms and cities resulted in lower freshwater flows than what is needed to keep water quality and temperatures ideal for fish.
“They want to take the highest quality water and divert it to the south,” Schifferle said. “People feel that’s going to serve Metropolitan water interests,” with impacts to water quality and energy costs for those in the delta region.
Instead, Schifferle said California should focus on improving the flow of precious water into aquifers, rather than allowing many farmers to keep up thousands of acres of thirsty crops.
“The more that you have urban encroachment upon the watershed above the delta, the more you have higher and higher flows [in] the delta,” she said. Instead, she touted “non-structural flood control projects and other habitat-enhancing projects.”
“We’re still trying to use 1950s solutions to solve our problems,” Schifferle added. “It’s not going to work in climate change, because we’re going to have these longer dry spells.”
Back in Isleton, many residents remain more concerned about immediate impacts to their daily life from flooding and power outages. Especially after the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic, these issues are obstacles for revitalizing local business in places like Isleton.
Melissa Stotle, an artist in Isleton’s new Mubdie’s artisanal store, said many in the region are more concerned about power outages than flooding. She’s hopeful that upcoming local events, including the Cajun Crawdad Festival in June, will help entice visitors and bring business back to the delta’s shores.
“They’re trying to make this little town be born again,” Stotle said of local business owners.
Down the street, Suarez agrees with those dreams for Isleton. Going forward, she hopes to see other new businesses take off in her beloved community.
“I think Isleton is trying really hard to revitalize,” Suarez said. “We just want everyone to succeed here.”
