Delta Stewardship Council
The 2009 comprehensive package established a new governance structure for the Delta and a framework for achieving the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply and restoring the Delta ecosystem.
The Delta Stewardship Council is a major component of the new governance structure. The council is tasked with developing a Delta Plan to guide state and local actions in the Delta in a manner that furthers the co-equal goals.
The council has released six staff drafts of the plan to date and has issued a draft environmental impacts report. It is expected to adopt a final Delta Plan in fall of 2012.
The Delta Plan will reference work done through the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). That process is developing a comprehensive plan to obtain long-term operating permits under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts.
Draft Delta Plan
The council issued the sixth staff draft of the Delta Plan on May 14, 2012. The sixth draft, which includes 14 proposed policies and 68 recommendations, will be discussed by the council at its May 24 meeting as well as meetings set for June 14-15 and June 28-29.
Council staff expects to make further revisions at the direction of council members and recirculate the draft environmental impact report to cover the final staff draft sometime this summer. A final Delta Plan is expected to be adopted by November or December.
The fifth staff draft of the Delta Plan was released on Aug. 2, 2011. The fifth draft was the basis of a draft Environmental Impact Report released in November.
ACWA and a coalition of water agencies and organizations submitted an Alternate Delta Plan to the council in June 2011.
- Read the Alternate Delta Plan.
- Read the Ag-Urban Coalition's comments on the fifth staff draft Delta Plan
Independent Science Board
The Delta Stewardship Council's Independent Science Board released a report on addressing multiple stressors in the Delta. The report concludes that there is currently no objective method for ranking the stressors and no evidence that reducing just one or even several stressors will solve a particular problem.
The report breaks down the long list of stressors into four categories: global drivers (climate change, earthquakes, population growth, state economy); legacy stressors (mostly human-caused – upstream dams, development, invasive species, selenium); current causes (upstream diversions, pumping in the Delta, farm water runoff, wastewater treatment plants, cities and industry); and anticipated stressors (landscape changes, urban expansion, land-use decisions).
The ISB will collaborate with members of the council as they work to draft the Delta Plan, expected to be released in first draft form in mid-February.
