Central Valley farmers like Donald Trump on water. On California’s Kamala Harris, less so

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Central Valley farmers feel former President Donald Trump more aligns with their water needs than Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator and attorney general for California.

“The reason I say that is I have not seen anything positive in supporting farmers — supporting water supply for farms, for food security — from the Democratic administration, whoever’s in charge,” said Tom Barcellos, a lifelong farmer and president of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District. “We get lip service, but we don’t get results.”

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Barcellos, who lives in Porterville, owns Barcellos Farms and is a partner in a dairy. He, like many others in the agriculture-dominant region home to a conservative stronghold in its south, support Republican policies and are frustrated with the Democratic super-majority in Sacramento and federal government for more reasons than water.

California’s Central Valley and in particular the San Joaquin Valley, which makes up its lower half, is one of the most agriculturally abundant areas in the U.S. More than half of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown here. California produces the most milk in the nation too.

One of the biggest struggles for farmers here has been balancing surface and groundwater resources with environmental needs. Water is controlled on multiple levels of government, from local to federal and especially on the state level.

But the federal government oversees a major water delivery system that sends the bulk of agricultural water to the San Joaquin Valley, and farmers there have grown frustrated with drought and policies aiming to protect endangered fish that have dwindled supplies many years.

Central Valley water leaders liked late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s work on water, which often drew environmentalist complaints. Though Harris worked with her in the Senate, the Democratic presidential candidate’s stance feels less known after launching her campaign just a few weeks ago.

“She’s no Dianne Feinstein,” said William Bourdeau, vice president of Harris Farms in Coalinga and a director at Westlands Water District, which is the biggest agricultural water district in the nation.

“We’re going to do whatever we can to work with whoever the voters decide is going to be the leader of our country,” Bourdeau said. “But I’m not optimistic about her policies or her record or how she’s going to view the Central Valley.”

Harris and Feinstein

Looking at Harris’ record as a senator, farmers and environmental advocates alike didn’t connect her much to water issues, though on the 2016 Senate campaign trail she said she would not support efforts to weaken federal law governing endangered species.

“And I reject a false choice that you are on one side or the other, that it’s either a fish or a farmer,” she told The Bee’s editorial board at the time.

There’s also been division between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, two areas that Harris is tied to, and the Central Valley about water.

“Urban sprawl demands water, and that’s where the votes are at,” Barcellos said.

Harris was a U.S. senator from 2017 until 2021, when she became vice president. During that time, she was longtime California Senator Feinstein’s junior.

Feinstein had staked out her attention to water before Harris came to office, and the junior senator took over her predecessor’s work on other issues.

“Senator Feinstein was sort of the lead and was super engaged in helping farmers to the extent of what she could do, and so that was always much appreciated,” said Jason Phillips, the chief executive officer of Friant Water Authority. “Senator Harris was not that engaged at all.”

“Feinstein had taken the portfolio of California water and she was close to San Joaquin Valley Water leaders, the boards of directors and general manager of Westlands and other San Joaquin Valley water interests, who have a strong interest in getting water to their farms,” said Ron Stork, senior policy advocate of Friends of the River, which works on conservation. “Even though, in some cases, that might might backfire on them.”

Still, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said Harris was supportive of his efforts with Feinstein on water issues.

He said, “she worked to diversify our water supply, improve aging infrastructure, and supply clean drinking water in underserved communities like those in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Costa and others praised Harris’ infrastructure efforts as vice president to bolster aging agricultural systems.

“When we look at the bigger picture, Vice President Harris has been a strong supporter of infrastructure investments for agriculture,” said Mike Wade, the executive director at California Farm Water Coalition. “Through the Infrastructure Investment (and Jobs) Act, her support there is helpful to get money out on the ground to repair old infrastructure, perhaps build new infrastructure, and that’s a positive.”

Central Valley water

The federal government, through the U.S. Department of the Interior and its water-regulating subsidiary Bureau of Reclamation, control the Central Valley Project that sends water to San Joaquin Valley farmers. The State Water Project also delivers agricultural water there.

The Central Valley Project is a network of 20 dams, reservoirs and other infrastructure that store and convey water along a 400-mile path from Redding to Bakersfield. The State Water Project draws from many of the same resources and coordinates with the federal entity.

A major source of these water deliveries is where rivers converge with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The area is also home to endangered fish — including Delta smelt, a tiny fish that has come to symbolize California’s water wars — which can get sucked into pumps and struggle to survive with poor water quality, increasing water temperatures, loss of habitat and invasive species.

During years of drought, water deliveries fell short, if they came at all. As recently as 2022, most Central Valley Project recipients couldn’t get any of that water. The Bureau of Reclamation had to cut supplies for some senior water rights holders during dry years too.

Even after a couple wet years, regulations to protect threatened fish from extinction have also meant San Joaquin Valley farmers haven’t gotten their full share of water.

“The agencies didn’t have the flexibility to say, fish are still safe, let’s move more water,” Wade said. “And that constraint has led to us having a 50% allocation for a couple million acres of farmland. And it’s devastating.”

Trump’s water plan

Frustration over water deliveries were building for decades when Trump came into office in 2017. He had a campaign promise to deliver more water to Central Valley farmers. Federal policy moves slowly and water rules take years to develop, but Trump’s efforts signaled some potential relief.

“When you have 30 years, thinking of a football analogy, of every play you’ve lost yards,” Friant Water Authority’s Phillips said, “now you’re back against your own end zone and you actually have someone fighting for you to where you can run a play and gain two yards.”

Friant Water Authority manages water deliveries from the San Joaquin River through the Friant-Kern Canal.

Trump picked David Bernhardt, a former attorney and lobbyist for the San Joaquin Valley’s Westlands Water District, for deputy in the Department of the Interior. Westlands gets its water from the water project contracts. Bernhardt later became Interior Secretary.

Trump, through an executive order to speed environmental reviews on Western water and revision of Obama-era rules, sought to increase deliveries. Officials completed biological opinions in 2019 that said increased pumping would not harm endangered fish, then aimed to implement rules based on this to deliver more farm water.

The plan never came to be. California officials and environmental groups successfully sued and stymied it, saying that pumping more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farms would further endanger Delta smelt, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout — fish protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the opinions failed to analyze the potential for extinction of the fish and ignored that federal law requires helping the recovery of threatened species, not just ensuring continued survival.

The California lawsuit contended the opinions neglected the decline in smelt, relied on uncertain harm reduction and failed to account for the impact of climate change.

“The president was quite a showman, and the rhetorical flourishes and signing the executive order and promising that he’s going to bring us a lot of ‘dam’ water — that was typical Trump,” said Stork of Friends of the River, which opposed the 2019 biological opinions. “He might know something more about the government next time around, and might actually do something.”

Biden retracts Trump plan

Since Trump’s plan was blocked, state and federal agencies have used interim annual agreements to govern water allocations. Officials have been working to redo the biological opinions that guide how the water is managed.

President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to solidify new rules before he leaves office. It released an environmental study on the issue this month.

“While Kamala Harris and (running mate) Tim Walz’s dangerously liberal record is earning endorsements from pro-Green New Deal activist groups, President Donald J. Trump has always balanced protecting our environment while standing up for farmers,” said Rachel Reisner, the GOP regional communications director, “from securing water supplies to ensuring fair trade deals for American agricultural exports.”

A Democrat is highly likely to win California’s electoral votes this year. The state hasn’t picked a Republican president since 1988. Water stakeholders said they look forward to working with whomever is in the White House.

“Water security and affordability affect all Californians and are issues that should transcend political divides, with leaders and advocates from across the political spectrum recognizing the critical role of Central Valley agriculture,” said Allison Febbo, general manager of Westlands Water District. “For generations, family farmers in Westlands have adapted to shifting administrations and policies, ensuring our nation’s food and fiber supply remains secure.”