Trump signs order diverting water to California farmers against state wishes

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Trump diverts water to fill the swamp with his own creatures

During Wednesday's speech, Trump gave repeated kudos to Bernhardt, who has been mired in controversy for his past work for Westlands Water District, one of the groups pushing to expand water access for central California's ag industry.

Reporting from The New York Times found that Bernhardt continued to work for Westlands as late as April 2017, the month he was nominated to his previous role as deputy secretary of the department. He filed paperwork to end his status as a federal lobbyist in November 2016.

The Trump administration is moving to weaken protections on an imperiled fish population in California’s Central Valley, a shift that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had previously called for when he lobbied on behalf of farmers.

The Fish and Wildlife Service announced in a biological opinion Monday that the federal government is changing decades-old protections on the delta smelt, a small fish species found in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that has for nearly three decades been a source of conflict between farmers and environmentalists.

Separately, the agency also issued a biological opinion to lift protections on the chinook salmon, a reversal from findings issued in July and subsequently pulled by the administration.
...
The announcement is likely to further raise ethics concerns surrounding Bernhardt, who just before joining the administration lobbied on behalf of a farming group based in California to roll back protections on the delta smelt. Bernhardt is currently under federal investigation over several ethics concerns including complaints that he continued to push the efforts of his former employee, Westlands Water District, to advance policy at the Interior Department.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/466943-trump-admin-weakens-california-fish-protections-interior-secretary