California to spend billions on ‘visionary’ plan to boost fish habitat. But skeptics question whether effort to save San Francisco Bay delta region will work without allocating more water for nature

California’s San Francisco Bay delta region is the site of some of the country’s fiercest water wars, rivaling the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. The delta, which lies between San Francisco and Sacramento, California, is the last refuge of seven endangered fish species and the central hub for diverting water to farms and cities, and there has long been too little to go around. Now, the state has reached the final stages of overhauling water policy for the entire delta for the first time in 30 years, and many stakeholders are unhappy.