BDCP, Adaptive Management Headline Delta Council Meeting

The degree to which the Bay Delta Conservation Plan will inform the Delta Plan was a key topic of discussion at the Delta Stewardship Council meeting today in West Sacramento.

Council members heard an update on the BDCP from a panel which included Karla Nemuth, Natural Resources Agency program manager for BDCP, and Greg Gartrell, assistant general manager for Contra Costa Water District.

Nemuth provided an update in keeping with a public meeting held Monday with Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and Interior Secretary David Hayes, including the new process for completing the BDCP, and the plan’s broader public and stakeholder participation goals.

Biological goals, habitat restoration, governance structure and in-Delta water quality are the first issues staff will tackle over the next few months, she said.

Gartrell discussed water conveyance alternatives, including a tunnel option. Given the high seismic risks to the existing Delta levees, he said, a tunnel is the most reasonable solution.

“There is a 99% chance of a magnitude 6.7 seismic event in the Bay Area occurring in the next 30 years,” he said. “There is no way we want to build up levees high enough to create a canal when our existing system is at such great risk.”

The council also heard a presentation by Delta Science Program Lead Scientist Cliff Dahm on the adaptive management chapter in the third staff draft of the Delta Plan. Planning, doing, collaborating, and responding are the themes of the chapter, he said.

The meeting continues tomorrow at 9 a.m. in West Sacramento. View the agenda and meeting materials here.