MPC: New Development on the Bay-Delta Plan

The State Water Resources Control Board has significant control and authority over how water flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Delta is essentially the valve through which Northern California surface water passes through on its way to the ocean. A limited amount of that flow is diverted to the aqueducts for use in the Central Valley, Southern California and the Bay Area. For a number of years, the State Water Board has been in the process of updating the Delta water regulations. The existing rules have resulted in significant reductions in exports of water to people and farms, while not improving, and in some cases worsening, the condition of endangered fish species. The State Water Board is required to balance all of the beneficial uses of water, including water for people and farms, in their regulations.

In anticipation of the need to update the Delta regulations, many water users, including the State of California, have collaborated on a “voluntary agreement” (VA) plan that is now called Healthy Rivers and Landscapes. This plan addresses the many factors besides water that have caused the fish to decline. The VA plan proposes to address those stressors with projects at least partially paid for by the water users. This approach would still require some additional water, but much less than a water-only approach, which is being advocated by single-focused environmental interests. The water-only approach, called “unimpaired flows,” would require that millions of additional acre-feet of fresh water be sent to the ocean, with no requirement that these flows actually improve the condition of the fish.

The State Water Board announced this week that it is prioritizing the “voluntary agreement” path to compliance for those water entities that “voluntarily” agree to the plan. If an agency does not agree to the plan, then it will be subject to the unimpaired flows regulation.

Milk Producers Council is an active participant in the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley. Here is the Blueprint statement on what the State Water Board announced this week.

The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley joins water agencies across California and Governor Newsom to applaud forward progress by the State Water Board for advancing an innovative approach to improve healthy rivers and landscapes throughout the San Joaquin Valley. The Blueprint strongly supports the goal of restoring ecological function in California’s watersheds while meeting the water needs of our farms, communities, businesses, and environment.

As a coalition deeply committed to sustainable water outcomes, the Blueprint recognizes the potential of the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program now under consideration in the Bay-Delta Plan update. The program represents an opportunity to balance improved environmental outcomes and greater water supply certainty to the San Joaquin Valley, where water scarcity already threatens farms, communities, and disadvantaged populations, as compared to the flow-only alternative.

This moment demands a change in direction and action, not a continuation of failed policy that redirects water supplies without addressing all factors impacting species, including habitat needs, and fails to appropriately balance the needs of all beneficial water uses. In June, the Blueprint submitted a comprehensive policy memo to President Trump and Governor Newsom, calling for urgent state-federal alignment to implement executive orders to restore water reliability. Our memo outlines concrete steps to deliver an additional 9 million acre-feet per year by 2040 through modernized operations, reduced regulatory bottlenecks, and accelerated infrastructure development and delivery. As the Bay-Delta Plan is finalized, it will be important to ensure alignment with the goals outlined in the Blueprint’s memo to the President and Governor, which emphasize pairing environmental improvements with actions that enhance water reliability for the San Joaquin Valley.

We appreciate the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program’s emphasis on functional flows—water that arrives at a time and scale to activate habitat—and it is critical that those increased flow conditions are implemented in parallel with actions that increase water supply to meet the needs of the San Joaquin Valley communities. That balance is critical to ensuring the water needs of the San Joaquin Valley are met in the future.