“OPEN ALL THE DAMS NOW!” (avoid the rush).
They’ll need to protect endangered salmon, or the snail darter, or the spotted owl, and divert as much of the melt as possible to the ocean. And once it stops, they’ll ramp up the “OH NO! IT’S SO DRY!” rhetoric.
The Endangered Species Act has become a political sledgehammer the left uses for tyrannical control. Oddly, I approve of trying to save endangered species but the economic and societal consequences must be considered. If the Delta Smelt went extinct there would be no economic or societal price to pay. That price is being paid by farmers who do not have enough water for their crops. This also has a great negative societal effects.
Give the water to the farmers would be my decision.
When the EPA puts restrictions of how one's own property can or can not be used, it devalues the worth of that land. The property owner is not compensated for this devaluation. This is actually a type of seizure that is explicitly illegal as defined in our constitution.