As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s promise to help Central Valley farmers get more water and to reduce environmentalists’ influence over the federal government got him a

As president, for a variety of reasons, Trump so far has only been able to provide part of the relief on water supplies that many in the Central Valley sought, even in the wake of a winter rain deluge. But Trump has signaled his intent to honor his promise to help the region by choosing David Bernhardt – a veteran of California’s water wars – for the No. 2 job in the Interior Department.

Bernhardt is a Colorado-based partner in Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a multi-state law firm which has on four occasions represented the Central Valley’s Westlands Water District, the largest U.S. irrigation district, in lawsuits targeting Interior Department policies. The law firm has been paid $1.3 million by the water agency since 2011.

Bernhardt’s Senate confirmation is expected this week or soon thereafter, but it may be close to a party-line vote. At a May 17 meeting of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Bernhardt was grilled by ranking Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats over the conflicts of interest he would face because of his history representing Westlands and Cadiz, a Los Angeles land development firm that has fought with federal regulators over its audacious plan to access the water in a Mojave Desert aquifer.

Bernhardt: Effect on jobs should matter in regulatory decisions

At the hearing, Bernhardt repeatedly said he would avoid issues involving former clients unless given the blessing of Interior Department ethics lawyers. But Bernhardt’s remarks in answer to another question explain why he may be such a threat to the Central Valley’s water status quo.

When asked about his commitment to “scientific integrity” in enforcing Interior Department policies, Bernhardt said, “I will look at the science with all its significance and its warts. You look at that, you evaluate it and then you look at the legal decision you can make. In some instances the legal decision may allow you to consider other factors, such as jobs.”

This is music to the ears of many Californian Republicans, starting with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. He has long contended that the Central Valley has suffered from a “man-made drought” because of bureaucratic decisions that interpret laws in ways that place the interests of  endangered fish such as the delta smelt over the needs of humans – despite no compelling legal obligation to do so.

The Obama administration rejected the contention, saying that its actions to use fresh water supplies to help sustain the delta smelt instead of helping Central Valley farmers followed laws requiring the federal government to protect endangered species and the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Administration representatives said the decisions Nunes slammed as arbitrary were anything but.

Yet the highest-profile fight between Bernhardt’s law firm and Obama’s Interior Department wasn’t about the delta smelt or allegedly dubious bureaucratic maneuvering. It was over toxic substances in the irrigation water coming from Westlands’ 940 square-mile district. Despite criticism from environmentalists, the Obama administration agreed to a settlement on how the problem would be ameliorated that the Fresno Bee estimated could save the water agency more than $375 million. Greens who didn’t like the ruling couldn’t overcome the case that Bernhardt built that federal courts had consistently held that the federal government bore the burden for building drainage systems to limit the impact of the toxins.

Feds control 100 million acres of land in California

But Bernhardt’s confirmation would also insert him in other California water issues.

As a Sacramento Bee editorial noted, the deputy interior secretary historically has been “directly involved in virtually every aspect of California water, from the Colorado River agreement in the south to the Klamath River in the north, and, especially, the operations of the Central Valley Project.”

Given that the federal government owns or effectively controls 100 million acres of land in California – second only to Alaska in federal land holdings in the 50 states – this focus by the agency’s number two official is unsurprising.

Stepping up water collection has emerged as a priority in Southern California, drawing much of its water from outside sources, including Northern California and the Colorado River, as the Washington Post observed. “The State Water Resources Control Board plans to allocate $200 million for such projects,” the paper noted. “And Los Angeles plans to capture 20 billion more gallons than the 10 billion it collects during normal years.”

“In Los Angeles, the city gutted a 16-foot-wide concrete street median and replaced it with vegetation that captures rain over 111 acres. The $3.4 million project is designed to collect enough water to fill more than 27 Olympic-size swimming pools a year.”

More than one drought

But the larger picture regarding El Niño has become much more complex. California’s vast size, varying climates and competing consumption needs have conspired with the imprecise definition of drought to leave many communities unsure of how much more rain they’ll need to turn the corner.

“Ask water managers in different parts of California when they expect they might shake free of the worst drought in a generation — and whether a wet El Niño winter could be their savior — and you’re likely to get a lot of answers,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Those answers depend on where people live and what source of precious water they’re tapping.” Analysts told the Chronicle much will hinge on the remaining two to three months of the state’s rainy season, which could keep snowpack levels high enough for many areas to begin banking on lasting relief.

A stark turnaround recently witnessed at Folsom Lake, fed by river water swelled by the snows, has fueled those hopes. Folsom, the state’s ninth-largest reservoir and the Sacramento area’s primary source of drinking water, had shriveled down “to a mere 135,561 acre feet” early this December, as the Chronicle noted in a separate report. Then came El Niño. “With the recent rains, Folsom’s water level has risen 28.5 feet and the reservoir is now holding 246,497 acre feet of water,” the paper added.

Still, according to the U.S Drought Monitor, the Golden State has remained parched. “In California, moderate drought covers 97 percent of the state, with 87 percent in severe, 69 percent in extreme and nearly 45 percent in exceptional drought,” Capital Public Radio reported. Because of the cutoff date for the data it used to tally those numbers, however, that harsh analysis “does not include the recent storms that have brought rain and snow to the state.”

Tapping the desert

Experts have long acknowledged the limits of rainwater in resolving California’s drought challenges. But one ambitious workaround — tapping into groundwater locked below the Mojave Desert — has finally picked up steam. Two years ago, the Cadiz company, led by Scott Slater, sought to “tap an aquifer beneath 34,000 acres of the eastern Mojave and sell the water to suburbs and subdivisions in the Los Angeles Basin,” as Bloomberg Business then reported. “Several politicians, ranchers and environmentalists call Cadiz’s proposal ludicrous,” the site noted. But Slater, it went on, had already obtained “the necessary permit to pump from San Bernardino County, where the aquifer is located. He also has six utilities in the Los Angeles area eager to buy the desert water.”

Cadiz hit a major roadblock when the Bureau of Land Management finally weighed in on its schemes last October. “In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says Cadiz cannot use an existing railroad right-of-way for a new water pipeline that would carry supplies from the project’s proposed well field to the Colorado River Aqueduct,” as the Times reported. “By using the railroad right-of-way, Cadiz had hoped to escape federal environmental review of the 43-mile pipeline, one of the project’s most expensive components.”

But Slater’s support in and around the Southland has not ebbed, and he has redoubled his efforts this year. “Cadiz will have to seek federal approval for the pipeline, which will trigger a long and expensive environmental impact review,” according to the Guardian. “If we can’t get them to follow the law, we’ll do what we need to do, pursue administrative and judicial remedies,” he told the paper.