SACRAMENTO, CA - Two top officials have announced their retirements amidst turbulent times regarding California’s waterways.

Both Mark Cowin, Director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), and Carl Torgersen, the DWR’s Chief Deputy Director, announced this month that they will be stepping down from their posts by the end of the year, according to news source Indy Bay.

Though the retirements were known about by DWR insiders for some time, Deputy Secretary for Communications of the California Natural Resource Agency Nancy Vogel only confirmed the developments December 7, remarking that she was unsure who would replace the two officials.

Both officials’ retirements come at a time when Governor Jerry Brown’s California WaterFix, commonly known as the “Delta Tunnels” plan, is increasingly coming under fire from fishermen, tribal leaders, family farmers, environmentalists, scientists, and elected officials.

The project is thought by critics to have potentially dangerous ramifications for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and West Coast salmon. Opponents of the plan believe that construction and diversion of Delta waters could hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species in the area. Critics note that the plan could even imperil killer whale populations off the coast and salmon and steelhead populations as far as the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

Proponents of the plan note that California’s primary supply of clean water is out of date, unreliable, and entirely inefficient. Proponents note that our current system is damaging the environment as well, and an out-of-date pump and levee system threatens safety, wastes water, and harms fish populations.

Both Cowin and Torgersen were instrumental in moving forward the California WaterFix.

Cowin has served as Director of the DWR since 2010, working within the organization for the past 35 years. "As DWR Director, Mr. Cowin heads a Department that protects, conserves and manages the state's water supply, including operation of the California State Water Project," notes a biography found on the DWR’s website.

Torgersen was appointed to Deputy Director of the DWR in November of 2015. His career in the DWR began in 1981. Prior to serving in his current position, Torgersen served the Deputy Director of the State Water Project.

For more developments with California's waterways and the ways in which they affect the produce industry, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow. 

California WaterFix California Department of Water Resources