CA Loves to Fight Trump
The State Water Project can’t move without FED help
The relicensing of the Oroville Dam hydroelectric facilities has been underway for more than two decades. The Oroville Dam is the cornerstone of the State Water Project, delivering water to 27 million Southern Californians and irrigating 750,000 acres of farmland in the Central Valley. The dam generates about 2.2 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power annually, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Although the California Department of Water Resources and many local stakeholders reached a settlement estimated to provide roughly $1 billion in environmental, recreational, cultural, and other community impact benefits, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has yet to issue a new license, and the project continues to operate under annual extensions.
One big new issue: not all California tribes with cultural and historical rights to the Feather River have signed onto the relicensing process. They were consulted, but then left out of the process, the money, the changes in water allocations, and the signing ceremony. Mooretwon Rancheria, Berry Creek Rancheria, and Enterprise Rancheria Maidus all have lands in the FERC boundary; indeed, the Enterprise Tribe has original village sites at the very bottom of Lake Oroville. Hard for CA to say the Indians have not experienced impacts from the project.
Across the country, tribes have had a non-stop series of wins in FERC relicensing agreements and community impact settlements. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe participated in a $325 million restoration project, while the Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, and Klamath Tribes were part of a $250–$400 million Klamath settlement. The Skokomish Indian Tribe secured more than $15 million, and tribes participating in the Columbia River Basin agreements—including the Yakama Nation, Nez Perce Tribe, and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs—received more than $1 billion in new federal funding for restoration and fish passage improvements.
Meanwhile, Butte County has stood up a website quantifying the costs to the community by a project that exports billions in water and power far beyond county boundaries. The website, ourwatertheirpower.org, shows specific promises the State made to get the FERC license 70 years ago and how often the State has not followed through and, worse, added costs to the community as locals watch millions of dollars go downstream to meet the needs of urban areas and farmers that compete with them in the global ag market. The County has complained about the State’s failures for years. This time, the County has quantified the costs; the tribes can legally compel the Federal government to address them.
The last time the State applied for a FERC license, the local tribes were too poor and lacked the capacity to speak out on environmental, fisheries, and economic issues. As the numbers above indicate, Tribes have been successful when they stand up for their communities.
As California plans for a water future in which Central Valley interests cannot pump unlimited groundwater, and droughts are more frequent, cooperation with the Federal Government; the EPA, the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other agencies will be essential. How that moves forward is a policy issue that will affect all Californians.
