Groups condemn the Newsom administration’s voluntary agreement framework, pledging to fight for water rights, environmental protections, and due process
For Immediate Release:
October 39, 2026
Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org
SACRAMENTO — In anticipation of the State Water Resources Control Board’s vote to adopt the updated Bay-Delta Plan, tribal leaders, environmental advocates, and Delta residents gathered at a press conference to condemn the decision and pledge further action to defend California’s water rights, protect critical ecosystems, and ensure meaningful public participation in decisions affecting the state’s water future.
Representatives from the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising and Restore the Delta, alongside Delta community members, denounced the plan, arguing that it entrenches the very inequities and ecological damage the update should address while sidelining tribes and environmental justice communities.
At the center of the plan newly adopted by the State Water Board are so-called “voluntary agreements”, privately negotiated deals allowing powerful water districts to offer limited flow commitments and funding in exchange for exemptions from stronger, enforceable regulatory requirements.
“For years we have raised our voices against a plan based on exclusionary voluntary agreements. For years we have explained how this plan would undermine our sovereignty and ways of life. For years we have asked the State Water Board to do its part to repair the legacy of atrocities committed against California tribes. And for years our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” said Vice Chair Malissa Tayaba, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. “But despite the Board’s approval of this discriminatory and destructive plan, we will continue to speak up and demand the state government do right by native people. We hope that the next Governor will give meaning to the apologies by stopping these voluntary agreements, establishing regulations to keep rivers flowing, and giving tribes a seat at the table.”
Tribal leaders and environmental groups have long warned that the voluntary agreements fall short of what science demands and lack the enforceable protections needed to safeguard threatened fish species, restore critical freshwater flows, and address harmful algal blooms (HABs).
“This plan fails the four million people living in the Delta, the 12 million more who live in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and all Californians. Implementing the voluntary agreements will further diminish their economies, public health, and access to clean water,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director at Restore the Delta. “Governor Newsom has failed in his responsibility to protect people, safeguard all beneficial uses of water, and preserve the health of the Bay-Delta watershed. By approving this plan, his administration is leaving behind an implementation nightmare. When this plan fails, the next Governor will be left to clean up the mess.”
“When the future of Bay-Delta water is stretched between so many competing uses, enforceable protection from harmful algal blooms is what waits. And the cost of waiting doesn’t land evenly. The board must adopt statewide cyanotoxin standards and objectives on a firm and public timeline,” said Gloria Valencia Cruz, Environmental Justice Advocacy Coordinator with Little Manila Rising.
Advocates also condemned the secretive process through which the agreements were negotiated, citing the exclusion of tribes and environmental justice organizations from key discussions. They further criticized state agencies for using confidentiality agreements to restrict access to scientific data and discussions central to the plan’s development.
“If Donald Trump was the Governor of California today he would be ‘bigly’ thrilled. The Bay-Delta Plan update is going just the way he would want. Give all his cronies much if not all of what they want and dismiss the wants and needs of everyone else. He would probably say, ‘I don’t care about those whiny environmental groups, or tribes, or fishermen, or disadvantaged groups, or even the average citizen, that’s all DEI anyway. Heck, we’re going to make and are making a fortune.’ Humm, maybe he is Governor,” said Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
The groups contend that the plan places an excessive financial burden on California taxpayers while failing to provide critical protections needed for the Bay-Delta ecosystem, native fish populations, and communities that depend on healthy freshwater flows.
They also warned that the cost of voluntary agreements could escalate dramatically if other landowners secure concessions similar to those in the Newsom administration’s controversial Fair Ranch water agreement, which drew scrutiny over its $180 million price tag. Under that scenario, the total cost of the voluntary agreements could reach $5.6 billion, more than five times the initial estimate of $1.1 billion, with taxpayers ultimately footing the bill.
Speakers vowed to continue fighting the plan and its voluntary agreement framework, nodding to further action to defend tribal and public water rights, protect California’s already imperiled ecosystems, and demand transparency, accountability, and a meaningful role for affected communities in major water management decisions.
“The law should serve as a baseline for equity and reparative justice to address California’s history of discriminatory water governance,” said Eli Calhoun, Student Attorney, Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, Counsel for the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC). “Instead, this plan entrenches historical inequities by ensuring that those who historically monopolized the watershed continue to dictate flow and temperature regimes at the expense of Tribes, environmental justice communities, and local ecosystems.”
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