Buried in the 3,500 pages of a State Water Board plan to increase the endangered steelhead population on the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers by between 1,000 and 4,000 fish is a formula that could turn the 209 region into Owens Valley 2.0. If the proposal to nearly double the unimpaired flows on the three rivers to 40 percent from February to June had been in effect at the start of this year the South San Joaquin Irrigation District would have been able to deliver only 105,000 acre feet of water to the 52,000 acres of farmland they help irrigate as well as to the cities of Manteca, Lathrop and Tracy. SSJID, in the water year that ended Sept. 30, delivered 183,000 acre feet. Keep in mind the 183,000 acre feet is after the district and cities combined efforts to reduce overall water use by 30 percent collectively in California’s fifth year of drought.