Lester Snow may have been kicked upstairs from DWR Director to Resources Agency Secretary partly to ensure delivery of the Bay Delta Consesrvation Plan.  The Administration may have been thinking that potentially regulated entities (PREs) around the BDCP table were losing focus and Snow would be the one to get folks back on track and...Read More

DSC independent consultant ARCADIS released a report that bashed BDCP’s progress and lack of significant findings, and the lack of willingness and/or ability to ask the right questions. A notable weakness is the vagueness surrounding proposed operational criteria and conservation measures.  RTD reported on this last month (August 25) in our “Haste makes waste, again”...Read More

There was a good bit of discussion regarding the DSC’s adoption of a Delta Plan, the folding in of BDCP, and how an appeal should be handled if someone takes issue with the Plan. Greg Zlotnik (State Water Contractors) requested some clarification from the Council on the necessity of BDCP in a Delta Plan. Isenberg...Read More

A Thursday morning meeting of Bay Delta Conservation Plan principals was disrupted by a fisherman, two environmentalists, and a Delta farmer protesting the closed process. The Department of Water Resources has told legislators that they’re not welcome at meetings of signatories to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the plan that state water exporters have undertaken...Read More

Westlands Water District got a letter from Congress members George Miller, John Garamendi, Grace F. Napolitano, and Mike Thompson. “We read with great interest,” they write, “that the Westlands Water District has more water at San Luis Reservoir than it can use this year, and is contemplating an exchange with the Metropolitan Water District of...Read More

The California Water Commission (CWC) is one of those State boards and commissions that could have sunsetted ten years ago and hardly anyone would have noticed. But it’s back, thanks to the 2009 Comprehensive Water Package.  The Legislation gave the CWC some responsibilities with respect to the water infrastructure envisioned by the water bond. The...Read More

The most interesting briefing came from Stuart Drown, executive director of the Little Hoover Commission.  The subject was the Little Hoover Commission’s August 2010 report, “Managing for Change: Modernizing California’s Water Governance.” This is a report that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, which is surprising given what it recommends:  separating the State Water Project...Read More

Under the terms of last year’s legislation, the Delta Protection Commission (DPC) has until July 2011 to come up with an Economic Sustainability Plan for the Delta. The DPC has completed five community meetings to gather public input on the creation of the Sustainability Plan “framework” for the Delta.  The DPC held meetings in Courtland,...Read More

On October 6, the DPC will hold Public Meeting #2 of its Feasibility Study for  a National Heritage Area (NHA) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  The meeting will include small group discussion on potential interpretive themes for a Delta NHA. The meeting will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at D. H. White...Read More

In its new video, “Westlands, Salmon, & Reason,” Salmon Water Now (SWN) challenges farmers to meet with fishermen for a meaningful discussion about water, politics, and people.  You can see this new video at  http://www.vimeo.com/14982246 SWN got a lot of reaction, even from national media, to its last video, “Bullies of Westlands.”  Some reactions apparently...Read More