Trump’s plan to divert water drew heavy fire from endangered species advocates. The plan helped his political constituents — farmers who disliked the water restrictions from Sacramento’s delta to the Central Valley, believing it to restrict their yields, profit, and business. Trump aimed to drastically increase the amount of water available to these farmers. However, federal regulators believed they were being sidelined by the Trump administration in the process. They warned this would hurt endangered species as their habitats would be degraded, but were ignored. It caused an internal uproar, and larger anger in state politics. However, the plan was finalized in late 2019 for new California water management.   

I thought some of the language surrounding science was very interesting. Those who were against the move to divert water claimed they were “standing up for science”. I think it’s important to realize that (while the two should obviously be connected) political preferences and science are separate. One can understand the damage of diverting water (as informed by science), and still support the move because they think the gain to farmers is worth the damage to one species of fish. One can understand the science of climate change, and still support low regulation on emissions in developing countries so those countries can quickly grow their economy, saving lives and promoting a better quality of life. It seems dangerous to label one side as scientific and the other side as misinformed on the basis of “you disagree with me and science is involved.” Sides certainly can be (and often are) misinformed, but that doesn’t seem like it ought to be the first response. But politics aside, the actions taken by the Trump administration on this particular matter are illegal. It violates the Environmental Protections Act of 1975, given that this water plan would be an action taken by the federal government that would be damaging to endangered species, it would be an unlawful act. This is the very issue that our class was spoken to about by the knowledgeable agent at the marine biology institute about the delta smelt.