Three conservation NGOs have filed suit to block the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump from using more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, arguing that the action would harm endangered fish populations like winter-run Chinook salmon.
The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), San Francisco Baykeeper, and Friends of the River in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, claims that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s plan to pump more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to agricultural users and others violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and threatens wild fish populations.
“The Delta is the irreplaceable home of iconic and endangered California fish, like salmon and steelhead, and we can’t let Trump’s reckless pumping destroy it,” CBD Staff Attorney Harrison Beck said in a release. “If the Trump administration continues to pump as much water as it can out of the Delta ecosystem, we may lose these native fish forever. We can’t allow mass extinction when it’s entirely avoidable.”
The plaintiffs want the court to block the federal government’s plan to pump more water through the Central Valley Project, a massive federal-run water management system that diverts water to dryer parts of the state. In his first month back in office, Trump issued an executive order directing the federal government to ensure Southern California had the water resources it needs. The move was ostensibly to combat the wildfires that have caused substantial harm to the region, as Trump has blamed the state government of California’s water management policy for the severity of the burns.
In a memo issued day one of his second term, Trump ordered the federal government “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” The memo was titled “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the government made 180,000 acre-feet of additional water available to the Central Valley Project in 2025. In December 2025, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Action 5, which would increase water reclamation in the delta. The bureau said it had captured an additional 39,000 acre-feet of water from the time Action 5 was approved through 23 January 2026.
“President Trump made clear that federal water projects must deliver real results for American families,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a release. “This administration is getting it done in record time. The Sites Reservoir Project and the gains achieved over the past year demonstrate how a disciplined, mission-focused approach can expand water reliability for communities, agriculture and the economy.”
However, the conservation NGOs behind the lawsuit claim the Trump administration’s water policy is harming the region’s ESA-listed fish stocks, including winter-run Chinook salmon, California Central Valley steelhead, and North American green sturgeon. In the lawsuit, the groups state that Central Valley Project operations impact water temperature, salinity, and flow, disorienting fish in the Delta watershed and subjecting them to “elevated levels of predation, harm, and mortality.”
The groups further allege that the bureau has ignored ESA constraints on water exports in the past.
"Every time the Bureau violates the already minimal protections that are in place for California Bay-Delta species listed under the Endangered Species Act, the agency is pushing these species that much closer to permanent and irreversible extinction,” Friends of the River Program Director Gary Bobker said in a release. “History will not judge well those who are willing to risk consigning salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon to the same dusty museum exhibits as the passenger pigeon and the Steller's sea cow. Hopefully, neither will the courts. The fact of the matter is there’s more than enough water to protect these species and meet people's needs, if only we would manage our supplies more responsibly.”
