The State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB” or “Water Board”) is responsible for preparing, implementing, and performing triennial reviews to water quality standards in each California region. Restore the Delta’s Policy Analyst, Cintia Cortez, is tasked with monitoring and engaging in Water Board processes to ensure community concerns are being acknowledged and addressed within the Delta region. She advocates for water quality standards that are protective of tribes, environmental justice communities, and Delta fisheries and ecosystems. We understand that what happens upstream of the Delta impacts the health of the Delta and further downstream and vice versa. One of the main focuses is on the Bay-Delta Plan (“BDP”), which establishes water quality standards in the Delta. The Bay-Delta Plan is currently undergoing revisions in a multiple phase process. The Phase I update to the BDP is focused on southern Delta salinity and flow objectives on the San Joaquin River and tributaries. Meanwhile, the Phase II update to the BDP is focused on flow requirements in the Sacramento River, the Delta, and tributaries as well as Delta outflows, cold water habitat, and interior Delta flow. Phase I was approved in 2018 and is pending implementation. The Phase II process is currently underway with the recent release of the Draft Staff Report in September 2023.
Collaborative and coalition building is essential to our work. The Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC) formed by coalition partners, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Restore the Delta joined by Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking a timely and meaningful update of the Bay-Delta Plan in December 2022. DTEC are also complainants in an ongoing investigation conducted by the EPA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act into the State Water Board’s discriminatory mismanagement of Bay-Delta water quality. Actions include initiating a rulemaking to adopt federal Clean Water Act-compliant, water quality standards for the Bay-Delta, including designating tribal beneficial uses and adopting flow-based, temperature, and HABs criteria that protect beneficial uses and tribal reserved rights.