At its June 19 meeting, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) heard a progress report on the update of the Bay Delta Plan, the water quality control plan that identifies the beneficial uses of the Delta’s waters and then sets water quality objectives to protect those uses. The State Water Board is the state agency that is charged with protecting water quality as well as allocating water rights, and develops statewide policies and regulations for California’s water bodies under the authority of the Federal Clean Water Act and the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act.
The update of the Bay-Delta Plan,last revised in 2006, takes on added importance as the Delta Reform Act of 2009 specifically mandates that construction of any new conveyance facilities for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan cannot begin until the State Water Board approves the change in the point of diversion, and that such an approval must include appropriate flow criteria. Additionally, the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Plan recommends that the State Water Board develop and implement flow objectives for the Delta watershed by June of 2014.
The Bay Delta Plan is being updated in four phases: phase one addresses San Joaquin River flows; phase two will address everything else not addressed in phase one; phase three will involve implementing phase one and phase two, once they are adopted; and phase four involves developing flow objectives for priority tributaries to the Delta.
PHASE ONE
The first phase of the update considers potential changes to the San Joaquin River flow objectives in order to protect fish and wildlife beneficial uses in the San Joaquin River and its salmon bearing tributaries, as well as salinity objectives to protect agricultural beneficial uses in the southern Delta.
On December 31, 2012, the State Water Board released the proposed revised objectives and the environmental documentation for public review. At the time, the State Water Board proposed new flow objectives of 35% of the unimpaired flows of the Merced, Tuolomne, and Stanislaus rivers for the period of February through June, as well as changes to salinity objectives for the south Delta. In March of 2013, a 2-day public hearing was held; the public comment period closed later that month. Les Grober, Assistant Deputy Director for the Water Rights Division, said that many useful and extensive comments were received from the Board and from the public during the comment period.
“We have looked at the information and determined, based on the volume of the information … it will likely require a re-release of the document to receive additional comments. We anticipate doing that by sometime this fall, which puts us on a track to consider adoption sometime in early 2014,” said Mr. Grober. “We’re going to have another round of comments really on the re-released documents because we’re going to try and address the long list of things that we had heard, and I think it will be an improved document.”
- For more information on phase one of the update, click here.
PHASE TWO
The second phase focuses on the other parts of the Bay-Delta Plan that aren’t covered in phase one. This includes Delta outflow objectives, export and inflow objectives, and schedule for closure of the Delta Cross Channel gates. The Board will also be considering new reverse flow objectives for the Old and Middle Rivers as well as potential new floodplain habitat flow objectives.
Phase two was initiated in January of 2012. In the fall of that year, six days of workshops were held for the Board to receive new information on the Delta’s fishery resources, the ecosystem and the low-salinity zone, as well as how the use of models and other analytical tools can be used to evaluate water supply, hydrodynamic and hydropower effects.
However, there are still areas of uncertainty that need to be addressed; therefore the Delta Science Program has proposed to do a series of workshops that will help develop the information where uncertainty still exists. Mr. Grober said those workshops will be held in the fall and will focus on two major topic areas: Delta outflow and other measures, and internal Delta flows, hydrodynamics, and other measures. In addition, the Delta Science Program and the Department of Fish and Wildlife are presenting a workshop on predation on July 22nd and 23rd.
“We still continue to prepare information in house but the workshops we are holding will inform that material, so technical reports will be ready in winter 2013 or early 2014,” said Mr. Grober.
- For more information on phase two of the update, click here.
PHASE THREE
The third phase, implementation, will include determining the changes to water rights and other measures needed to implement the plan, and will begin once final objectives for phase 1 and/or phase 2 have been adopted.
PHASE FOUR
Phase four of the update process involves developing flow objectives and implementation plans for high-priority tributaries to the Delta that currently are not specifically regulated in this way. The process will begin by first determining the flow criteria for the protection of fish and aquatic life with an emphasis on protection of threatened or endangered species; this criteria will be then taken into consideration as the objectives are tailored to each tributary to address it’s unique characteristics, public trust resources, and beneficial uses.
The State Water Board is planning to develop flow criteria, flow objectives, and implementation plans for six to nine tributaries which will be selected from a prioritized list of rivers and streams and in consultation with fisheries agencies.
“It is a priority action for us to develop flow objectives for the Delta but also for priority tributaries,” said Mr. Grober, “and for the priority tributaries, the target date is 2018.” He noted that the State Water Board is entering into an interagency agreement with the Delta Science Program to help develop the methodology for developing flow criteria for this phase, as well as the workshops being prepared for phase two.
“Regarding our phase 4 efforts and the Delta Science Program review of potential flow criteria methodologies, we do plan, once we receive the DSP’s comments, input and recommendations, of taking that and holding a public Board workshop so that we get input from everybody on the methods, and the specific recommendations of the Delta Science Program before we proceed,” said Dianne Riddle, Staff Environmental Scientist. Mr. Grober noted that would likely occur sometime in the fall.
- For more information on phase four of the update, click here.
THE BDCP AND THE BAY DELTA PLAN
Mr. Grober said that staff has been reviewing the administrative draft of the environmental documents for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to see if it provides any information that would inform the Board’s phase two effort, and also to make sure it will meet the need for any petitions that will be presented to the Board for a change in the point of diversion and other things. “So we’re reviewing those documents … to give them initial comments on the administrative draft on what more could be needed to inform our decision making,” said Mr. Grober, adding that they have been meeting with the fishery agencies as well as having conversations with the Delta Science Program and the EPA. “We’ll be continuing to work with the staff of the BDCP to resolve issues and other things necessary.”
“We anticipate receiving the change petitions for the point of diversion, spring of 2014, so that lines up for when we’ve made good progress on the phase two effort, and following that there would be some hearings to consider those potential changes because there will be inevitable protests and concerns and issues that would need to be resolved,” Mr. Grober said.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Visit the State Water Resources Control Board online by clicking here.
- Click here for the State Water Board’s program page for the Bay-Delta.
- Click here for the 2006 Bay-Delta Plan.
- Felicia Marcus discussed the Bay-Delta Plan update and more in her speech at the UC Davis’ California Water Policy Seminar Series. Read it here.
