The transition from Delta Vision, created in 2006 by Executive Order of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to the current Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) has looked pretty seamless. It was the Delta Vision “Blue Ribbon” Task Force chaired by Phil Isenberg that pushed forward the idea of co-equal goals for the Delta, later enshrined in the 2009...Read More

The Delta Protection Commission and the Water Education Foundation are sponsoring a Delta Levee Standards Conference on May 2. The agenda has pairs of experts speaking on Delta levee standards and on the relationship of Delta levees to conveyance, habitat, and public safety. Each pair of speakers will be introduced by Dr. Jeff Mount and...Read More

Those are the words used by Dr. Chris Earle of ICF International to describe the project underlying the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). This month’s BDCP public meeting provided an update from ICF on Chapter 3, Conservation Strategy, and Chapter 8, Implementation Costs and Funding Sources. A little time was also devoted to an overview...Read More

The Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee heard an update this week from State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) vice chair Frances Spivey-Weber on the strategy and schedule for establishing instream flow requirements for the Delta and Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. BDCP proponents have requested that the SWRCB delay flow determinations until after the...Read More

This month, the Bay Institute published a report called Collateral Damage examining effects of export pumping that are usually overlooked. The report says that estimates of fish kills based on salvage at the export pumps underestimate the problem because they don’t factor in disruptions to fish migration, reductions in the amount of non-lethal habitat available...Read More

Exporters complain about the amount of outflows fish require, calling that water “lost.” But for water that is really lost unnecessarily, we need to look at municipal waste water being discharged to the ocean after a single use: 3.5 million acre feet a year in LA, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties, enough to...Read More

In our report last week on the Senate Natural Resources and Water committee hearing on the DSC and the BDCP, we described an exchange between Senator Wolk and Westlands chief deputy general manager Jason Peltier. The Senator asked if Westlands would accept a stipulation that water delivered under the BDCP would go only to continued...Read More

H.R. 1837, the “Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act” now making its way through Congress, would render the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) largely irrelevant. So it is curious that the Legislative update to the Stewardship Council last week didn’t mention H.R. 1837. Staff were more interested in a measure by Congressman Garamendi dealing with flood...Read More

Staff reported that they had separated comments received on the Fifth Draft of the Delta Plan into two types: those related to changes in the Plan’s policies and recommendations, and those related to the supporting text. Comments that suggest changes in the Plan’s policies and recommendations fell into the following categories (see this table ): covered...Read More

At this week’s California Water Commission (CWC) meeting, the Commission voted to revise twenty-one previously approved Resolutions of Necessity to incorporate new language regarding Quitclaims and Hazardous Waste Testing to make them consistent with resolutions approved since February 15, 2012. That’s what happens when you hurry. There were only three Resolutions of Necessity proposed for...Read More