President Donald Trump in October weighed in on Western water in a way I’ve never seen in my 30-year career in the business. In Scottsdale, Ariz., Trump signed an executive memo intended to promote reliable water access in the West. The memorandum is intended to reduce regulatory burdens and promote more efficient environmental reviews of Western water infrastructure projects.

The president’s memorandum will benefit major water infrastructure projects to more effectively meet the demands of water users in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The administration will expedite biological opinions for California’s Central Valley Project, the California State Water Project, Klamath Irrigation Project in Oregon, and the Federal Columbia River System.

The memorandum establishes timelines for environmental reviews of infrastructure projects, allowing the best information to guide conservation of endangered or threatened species. The timelines allow for robust environmental review processes. Agencies will make determinations regarding endangered and threatened species based on the best available scientific and commercial data.

Trump’s memo provides welcome relief to Western farmers, rural communities and wildlife refuges that have struggled under water supply rules that are long overdue for an update.

Targeting California
The emphasis of the signing event in Scottsdale was clearly on California. The president’s action fulfills his campaign commitment to help solve that state’s water supply shortages and will greatly benefit Central Valley communities and the environment. Since 1992, water supply restrictions have caused severe economic consequences for farms — and the people who depend on them for work. Many of the state’s most disadvantaged communities have suffered due to scarce water supplies.

However, the president’s action will also help address water shortages that have occurred across other parts of the West as the result of federal regulations overseen by multiple agencies. It offers hope to farmers and ranchers served by other federal water projects in the Pacific Northwest. The executive memo places the responsibility of operating the federal water projects with the Department of the Interior, to be supported by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The action prohibits any impacts to threatened or endangered species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

A little history
This issue has been scrutinized by the executive branch as far back as 2011. At that time, President Barack Obama observed that the Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in freshwater but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater. Those overlapping jurisdictions have only slowed efforts to help the fish.

I testified last year before a House subcommittee on this matter. My testimony urged improved coordination between federal agencies. This will promote more efficient, effective and coordinated management of all ESA responsibilities for anadromous and freshwater fish in Western watersheds, from the highest reaches of our headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.

This action is an important and common-sense move that will benefit Western farmers and ranchers whose livelihoods depend on federal water projects. It’s a practical and assertive change to water management and species recovery that those producers deserve.

Keppen is executive director of the Family Farm Alliance.