State Board Adopts Delta Flow Criteria

The State Water Resources Control Board yesterday adopted criteria identifying how much water should ideally flow through the Delta to ensure a healthy ecosystem.

The report, developed as part of the comprehensive water package enacted by the Legislature in 2009, is non-binding and holds no regulatory weight. It will be transmitted to the Delta Stewardship Council to help guide development of the Delta Plan. The criteria will also inform the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, a multi-species conservation plan being developed separately by federal and state agencies as well as water users and environmental organizations.

The flow criteria call for significantly increased flows into and through the Delta, particularly during winter and spring months, and limits on reverse flows associated with pumping by the state and federal export pumps in the South Delta. The criteria do not reflect a balancing of all public trust and public interest concerns.

In its comment letter on the draft report, submitted July 29, ACWA acknowledged the accelerated timeframe required by the legislation. It also voiced concern that the criteria, as the State Board recognizes, fail to consider the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Delta ecosystem sustainability and fall short of meeting the Board’s public trust responsibilities.

An appendix defining the water cost of meeting the criteria was left out of the final report. All comment letters submitted to the State Board can be found here.

The Senate Select Committee on Delta Conservation, Conveyance, and Governance has scheduled an informational hearing for Aug. 9 to discuss the flow criteria. An agenda has not yet been posted.