Gallagher Warns California Water Board: Don’t Jeopardize North State Water Supply
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman James Gallagher (CA-01) is urging the California State Water Resources Control Board to reject its current Bay-Delta water plan, warning that the proposal could threaten water reliability for Northern California farmers and rural communities while abandoning years of work toward a collaborative approach to managing the state’s water.
In a letter to State Water Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel, Gallagher raised concerns with the August 2026 Draft Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan and its departure from the 2022 framework that established what is now known as the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes (HRL) Program.
“As a sixth-generation Sacramento Valley farmer, I know there is nothing abstract about water policy. It determines whether our farms can produce, whether our communities have a reliable water supply and whether rural Northern California can continue to thrive,” said Congressman Gallagher. “We spent years bringing water users and government agencies to the table to find a better way forward. Now, the State Water Board wants to move the goalposts and leave our communities wondering how much water will actually be left for them. That is unacceptable.”
The State Water Board’s proposal includes a regulatory pathway based on 55 percent of unimpaired flow on Sacramento and Delta tributaries, while key details surrounding implementation and future water curtailments remain unresolved. State lawmakers have separately raised concerns that the plan could affect reservoir storage, groundwater sustainability, and water deliveries.
Gallagher warned that those unanswered questions could have serious consequences for Sacramento Valley agriculture and rural communities that depend on reliable surface water supplies.
The proposal also comes as the federal government has raised its own concerns. On September 4, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation warned the State Water Board that the draft threatens the reliability of Central Valley Project water supplies and materially departs from the collaborative framework developed in recent years.
“We finally had state and federal agencies working with water users instead of against them,” Gallagher said. “California should be building on that cooperation, not replacing it with another top-down regulatory scheme that puts our water supply at risk.”
Gallagher also pointed to the significant federal investments being made to strengthen water infrastructure in the Sacramento River Basin. The Water Resources Development Act passed by the House and moving through Congress includes $155 million for water and wastewater infrastructure in the basin. In his letter, Gallagher argues that walking away from the collaborative HRL framework while making those investments would take the region backward rather than reinforce long-term water reliability.
Before the State Water Board takes a final vote, Gallagher is calling on the Board to restore certainty to the HRL pathway and fully define the alternative regulatory approach. He also urged the Board to evaluate the real-world effects on water supply and agriculture before moving forward.
Read Congressman Gallagher’s full letter HERE.
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Rep. James Gallagher | 408 Cannon House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515 US