New Congressional Districts and Some Popular Threatened Boating Rivers

This is the Congressional redistricting map that California voters approved. Credit: NPR 

Before the holiday rush delays our ability to focus on the challenges ahead, a close look at the implications of the new Proposition 50 California Congressional districts for the 120th and 121st Congresses is warranted. The new maps are here: Users of small watercraft (rafts and kayaks) have at least five California rivers to keep our eyes on. Here they are from south to north: 

The mighty Kings River. Photo Credit: Friends of the River

Kings River (El Río de los Santos Reyes): Last year the Kings River Conservation District persuaded an all-too-willing U.S. Congress to authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study raising Pine Flat Dam. If implemented, the popular run on the powerful Kings River would be truncated and more of the takeout beach would be uneasily shared with the reservoir (1). Pine Flat Dam and Reservoir will likely remain in Rep. Vince Fong’s (R-Bakersfield) Congressional District. Most of the Fresno area might end up within the Congressional district of veteran and dam-raise proponent Jim Costa (D-Fresno, although that assignment has yet to play out). 

Merced River (El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced): It is not clear if the Merced Irrigation District will be reviving its effort to expand McClure Reservoir and carve off the end of the Merced National Wild & Scenic River well upstream of the Bagby takeout. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) tried this a dozen years ago (2), and the reservoir will remain in this Republican district. Merced is likely to remain in Democrat but pro-dam-raise Adam Gray’s [D-Atwater] district. Fortunately, the Merced might benefit from the newly passed AB-43(3) (Schultz D-Glendale), which extends the power of the California Natural Resources Agency Secretary to add threatened national wild & scenic rivers to the state system. The pending federal hydropower relicensing could create significant takeout improvements. One can only speculate on whether the President’s legal theories about the independence of independent federal agencies will upend the prior work that has been done there. 

Wild and Scenic Merced River. Photo Credit: Friends of the River

Tuolumne River: The Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts have a grand plan to prune off the lower end of the Tuolumne National Wild & Scenic River, build two 500-thousand-acre-feet off-stream reservoirs connected to Don Pedro Reservoir and acquire the water rights to do this and more (4). The proposed reservoir expansion could make the Don Pedro Reservoir and sometimes Tuolumne River takeout more challenging. The dam and reservoir will likely remain in Rep. Tom McClintock’s now firmly Republican Congressional district and most of Modesto and Turlock will likely fall within Rep. Adam Gray’s (D-Atwater) district, where they will no doubt champion the irrigation districts’ proposals. This is another river that could benefit from the recent passage of AB-43 — if the Governor is prepared to buck Rep. Gray and the districts. It’s also another one with a pending federal hydropower relicensing – this time, because of the intervention of the first Donald Trump Administration, with only modest takeout improvements and a lack of an important public safety improvement for the long haul up to the Ward’s Ferry Bridge. We have asked FERC to fix the problem (5), and we don’t rule out the chance that this could be done with McClintock’s support. 

Graciella Rossi (working for ETC) rowing participants through the Devil’s Staircase rapid on the Stanislaus River. Circa 1976. Credit: Stanislaus River Archives 

Stanislaus River (Camp 9 whitewater run): After a foundational struggle for Friends of the River, the Camp 9 run of the Stanislaus (the most popular rafting run in the state at the time) was drowned by the New Melones Dam with the heavy runoff of the winters of 1982 and 1983, as well as by the fraying of the regulatory commitments and political will in the state and federal governments to save it. Some longtime Friends of the River members still hope to uncover this run more frequently with operational adjustments at New Melones Dam. The Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, however, are proposing to build a two-way tunnel from Don Pedro Reservoir to take advantage of the frequent empty space at New Melones Reservoir. The dam, reservoir, and the cities of Oakdale, Riverbank, and Escalon will likely be in Tom McClintock’s district, and Modesto and Turlock in Adam Gray’s district, both likely sympathetic to the districts’ proposal. 

McCloud River: Protected by the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act since 1989, this river is not heavily boated, but it is one of the more famous angling rivers in the state. It was also a target of Central Valley GOP Congressmen and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during President Trump’s first administration. Reclamation’s interest in drowning the McCloud is likely to be renewed in the second administration. The McCloud has been represented by GOP Congressmen for decades, at present by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Yuba City), who has championed raising Shasta Dam to inundate the protected reach of the McCloud. 

In a dramatic reversal, Rep Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) is expected to run in a redrawn 2026-election district that contains the McCloud River. Huffman has been a longtime champion of protecting the McCloud River. One can hope  that this will take some pressure off the McCloud River, although Reclamation is continuing to design the project and complete the Record of Decision for the Shasta Dam raise environmental impact statement, which was left over from Trump’s first term. California GOP congressmen, of course, may use their remaining terms in the 119th Congress to try to preempt California’s Wild & Scenic Rivers Act., We aren’t safe yet. 

Resources 

(1) Fresno Bee article on Pine Flat Dam raise 

(2) FOR Merced River Fact Sheet 

(3) FOR article on the passage of AB-43 (Wild and Scenic Rivers protections) 

(4) FOR article on raising Tuolumne River dams 

(5) FOR written comments on the Tuolumne federal hydropower relicensing