From the State Water Resources Control Board:
The State Water Resources Control Board is releasing a Notice of Availability and opportunity for public review and comment regarding a draft Comprehensive Operations Plan for the Southern Delta Salinity Objective that was submitted to the State Water Board by the California Department of Water Resources and United States Bureau of Reclamation in accordance with provisions of the 2018 Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta Estuary.
The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary Water Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan) establishes water quality objectives for the protection of beneficial uses in the Bay-Delta watershed. In December 2018, the State Water Board approved modifications to the southern Delta salinity objective and program of implementation in the Bay-Delta Plan for the reasonable protection of agricultural beneficial uses. The program of implementation requires USBR and DWR to submit a Comprehensive Operations Plan that describes actions to fully address impacts of State Water Project and Central Valley Project export operations on southern Delta water levels and salinity conditions to the State Water Board for approval.
In pertinent part, the Bay-Delta Plan requires the State Water Board Executive Director to act on the Comprehensive Operations Plan after providing notice and opportunity for comment.
As required by the 2018 Bay-Delta Plan, DWR and USBR consulted with the South Delta Water Agency and Contra Costa Water District regarding the initial draft Comprehensive Operations Plan. DWR and USBR are revising the initial draft Comprehensive Operations Plan in response to the consultation process. Public comments received in response to this Notice will be reviewed by DWR and USBR and may result in additional revisions to the initial draft Comprehensive Operations Plan. A revised draft Comprehensive Operations Plan will be made available to parties who submit timely comments consistent with Notice requirements for submission of written comments.
Written comment letters on the initial draft Comprehensive Operations Plan must be received by Tuesday, March 30, 2020. The State Water Board requests that comment letters on the Comprehensive Operations Plan be submitted via email to Bay-Delta@waterboards.ca.gov (please note that the email capacity is less than 50 megabytes total). Please title the subject line: “Comment Letter – Bay-Delta Plan Comprehensive Operations Plan.” Electronic submission by email in pdf text format is preferred. The State Water Board appreciates submissions that conform to Universal Accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standards, located at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/.
draft Comprehensive Operations Plan
