I had the privilege of being a panel member at the 10-year anniversary event of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which was sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources last month. The moderator of my panel asked this question: “In the next 10 years, what is it that the State needs to focus on to support the implementation of SGMA? What do we need to get right?”
In my opinion, the first answer to that question needs to be do no harm. And yet, doing more harm is exactly on the agenda of the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) as they consider updates to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (“Bay-Delta Plan”). The Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP) are the two major surface water delivery systems that make the California we know today possible. Both systems are heavily dependent on the delta region as the hub through which the water passes for people, farms and the environment (wildlife refuges in the Valley receive CVP water) of the Central Valley. The operation of these systems is regulated by the Water Board, and there is a formal process going on right now to update the Bay-Delta Plan. This plan regulates how much water can be exported and how much water needs to be sent to the ocean.
The Water Board is faced with a fundamental policy choice:
1. Amend the Bay-Delta Plan by adopting an unimpaired flow objective, which is being proposed by the Water Board’s own staff; or
2. Amend the Bay-Delta Plan by approving the Voluntary Agreements (also known as Healthy Rivers and Landscapes) proposed in March 2022 by numerous state agencies, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, and numerous public water agencies, with the support of Governor Newsom.
The Water Board staff report that recommends the unimpaired flow approach admits that this approach will reduce water exports to the Central Valley and Southern California by 786,000 acre-feet in above normal water years, 1.125 million acre-feet in below normal years and 1.325 million acre-feet in dry years. Even in wet years, there would be a 350,000 acre-feet reduction in exports. These are additional reductions from the current reductions imposed on the projects over the past 30 years. The Sacramento Valley is also hit hard by the Water Board staff unimpaired flows recommendation. The hit to the Sacramento Valley is a reduction of 182,000 acre-feet in wet years to a reduction of more than 800,000 acre-feet in dry years.
It is hard to fathom the economic, agricultural, and environmental harm that will take place in California if the Water Board staff unimpaired flow recommendation is adopted. Any reasonable effort to bring about groundwater sustainability through the recharge of surface water will be stymied by this approach. Suffice to say that the answer to the question, “What do we need to get right?” is for the Water Board to REJECT adoption of its staff’s recommended unimpaired flow approach.
The Healthy Rivers and Landscapes proposal is the alternative. This approach scraps the outdated idea that healthy fish populations just need more water to thrive and addresses other factors, such as loss of habitat, control of alien species and updated treatment of wastewater discharges that limit the abundance of native fish species. Taking this alternative will result in reduced water costs and will provide equivalent, if not better, protection for native fish.
There has been much talk recently about the importance of democracy. It is hard to understand how we got to a place where five unelected members of the State Water Resources Control Board have come to wield such considerable power, enabling them to make a decision that will have a devastating impact on the 39 million people who call California home.
Geoff Vanden Heuvel
Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs
Comments