Category Archives: Bay Delta

Esteemed Scientists Asked to Review a Draft Delta Planning Document with “Gaping Holes”

By | Bio | Published: December 10, 2010

Senior Water Resource Analyst

For the third time this year, a committee of experts from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) met publicly to discuss sustainable water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta with a particular focus on the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. It did not take the NAS experts long to reach the same conclusion EDF and others have reached some time ago: the BDCP has some gaping holes that must be addressed in order for the plan to have any chance of success.

The NAS first became involved with reviewing water management operations for the Bay Delta in 2009. At that time, Congress, The Department of Interior and the Department of Commerce Read More »

Posted in Bay Delta | Leave a comment

Westlands leaves the table – now what?

By | Published: December 1, 2010

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF

Westlands Water District, which provides water to 600,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings Counties, has resigned from the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) planning process, carrying out the threat they made last month at a meeting in Washington D.C. They cite the high cost of the process and the uncertainty of how much water that they would receive as reasons for their departure. Westlands' resignation letter, signed by Board President Jean Sagouspe, pointedly criticizes environmental organizations for relying heavily on freshwater flow as a measurement of success. Westlands’ letter and the response from Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes are both worth reading.

Not surprisingly, the magnitude and reliability of water supply is the most contentious issue within the BDCP. Read More »

Posted in Bay Delta | 1 Response

Bay-Delta Conservation Plan Reality Check: Some Progress Made, But Much More Work To Be Done

By | Bio | Published: November 19, 2010

Senior Water Resource Analyst

Yesterday, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan Steering Committee discussed the status of draft chapters to be released early next week in an effort to transition to the next administration. At the meeting, the consultant presented its proposed revisions to certain chapters in an attempt to respond to comments provided by Steering Committee members. It was acknowledged that the draft chapters 1) are far from complete, 2) often do not accurately reflect the level of progress achieved, 3) contain many issues that are still currently in dispute, and 4) do not represent consensus of the Steering Committee.

As a member of the Steering Committee, it was frankly disappointing that our schedule, driven by factors beyond our control, forced the release of such an incomplete document without opportunity to resolve key issues. Read More »

Posted in Bay Delta | Leave a comment

EDF Testimony for Bay Delta Conservation Plan Hearing

By | Bio | Published: November 16, 2010

Senior Attorney and California Water Legislative Director

Testimony of Cynthia L. Koehler
California Water Legislative Director
Environmental Defense Fund
before
Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife
November 16, 2010

Oversight Hearing on the
Bay Delta Conservation Plan: Status and Update

Chairman Huffman and Members of the Committee, on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and our thousands of California members, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and the outlook for the future. As you know, EDF has been a member of the BDCP Steering Committee, and my colleague Ann Hayden has been an active participant in the BDCP process, for the last five years. Attached to this testimony is a recent Opinion Editorial piece that Ms. Hayden and I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle that very briefly outlines EDF’s view about BDCP and the direction it can take most productively going forward.

As indicated in the Opinion Editorial, EDF remains firmly committed to the BDCP process and believes that, notwithstanding important unresolved issues, Read More »

Posted in Bay Delta | Leave a comment

2010 Export levels rebound to 1990’s levels

By | Published: October 1, 2010

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF

Happy New (Water) Year! For hydrologists, it is now 2011.

2010, from a statewide water supply perspective, was a significant improvement over the preceding three drought years. Runoff from Central Valley Rivers was very close to average – although a bit drier than usual in the Sacramento Valley and a bit wetter than usual in the Tulare Basin. As a result, farms, cities and the natural environment throughout California are all better off.

Of course there will continue to be extensive focus on Delta exports. Read More »

Also posted in Water Supply | Leave a comment

Delta Flow Criteria Represent Productive Step Forward

By | Published: August 19, 2010

Mark Hitchcock Legal Fellow, EDF

Earlier this month, California’s State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB”) unanimously voted to adopt flow criteria needed to protect public trust resources in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Newspaper reports have been filled with protests and dire predictions from the water user community. On one hand, some parties argue that the flows report has “no value”, is “immaterial”, “doesn’t really relate to the real world”, and that the findings represent “a purely theoretical exercise with no application in the real world.” At the same time, some complain that implementation of the flow determinations would “render California’s water system virtually inoperable” and “would – effectively – shut down California.”

What then, should we make of these Delta flow criteria that curiously appear to be both “immaterial” and catastrophic? In fact, neither accusation is accurate. Read More »

Also posted in Legal Issues, Legislation, Water Supply | 1 Response

From Paper to the Real World: Stopping Illegal Water Diversions in California

By | Published: August 4, 2010

Elliott Rector, Legal Intern, EDF

On June 29, the California State Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee approved SB 565, an encouraging first step towards reforming the illegal use and diversion of water in California. This important bill will next be taken up in the Appropriations Committee, possibly next week.

Looking back to move forward
SB 565 is sponsored by Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and co-sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael). This same group of key legislators made California’s water crisis and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta their priority policy agenda in 2009, passing a robust policy reform package in November. But the final policy package did not address the dilemma of illegal water diversions. Read More »

Also posted in Legal Issues, Legislation, Water Supply | Leave a comment

State Water Board Determines Delta Diversions Unsustainable

By | Bio | Published: July 29, 2010

Senior Attorney and California Water Legislative Director

A water weary reporter recently asked me why people should pay attention to the State Water Resources Control Board’s public trust flow recommendations, due to be finalized next week. “I mean, isn’t this just another report to sit on another shelf?” It’s a fair question, but adding more paper to more shelves was certainly not the intent of the lawmakers who fought hard to keep this key aspect of last fall’s Delta legislation intact.

Others are seeing value in the Board’s work as well. As the San Francisco Chronicle put it last week, the Delta “is not a bottomless well.” The Chronicle went on to say that the Water Board’s draft public trust flow analysis is a “bell-ringing reminder of the obvious,” that our 70-year trend of increasing diversions from the Delta is not sustainable and that “California can’t keep tapping the Delta without harming it.”

The San Jose Mercury News reached similar, if even more pointed, conclusions opining that, Read More »

Also posted in Fisheries, Legislation, Water Supply | 1 Response

California Water Board Helps Build a Bridge over Troubled Water

By | Bio | Published: July 21, 2010

Senior Attorney and California Water Legislative Director

The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) took a critical step forward today by issuing draft public trust flow criteria for the Bay-Delta Estuary. Synthesizing 30-or-so years of data collection and scientific analysis, the State Board concluded that the oft-stated goal of restoring the largest and most biologically important estuary on the West Coast will require better and more regular freshwater flows.

To synthesize the 190-page document into a couple of sentences: over the last couple of decades, California has diverted about 50 percent of the flow of the Sacramento River, and about 66 percent of the flow of the San Joaquin River, and about 50 percent of the water that used to make its way to the San Francisco Bay has not for quite some time (see page 5 of the report).

The draft criteria acknowledge what the overwhelming weight of science has shown for many years: this level of diversion is not compatible with our long-stated goal of a healthy Bay-Delta Estuary, a functioning salmon fishery, and an end to conflict over listed endangered species.

It confirms that the best available science shows that substantially increased flows are critically necessary to keep the largest and most biologically significant West Coast estuary from continuing its downward spiral. Read More »

Also posted in Legislation | Leave a comment

Esteemed Scientists to Weigh in on the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan

By | Bio | Published: July 19, 2010

Senior Water Resource Analyst

Last Tuesday marked the second formal gathering of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta. The meeting (the first of three days of meetings) focused on an overview of the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and “other stressors” impacting the ecosystem including pesticides and nutrients. The panel, which was formed at the request of Congress and the Departments of Interior and Commerce, is in the midst of the second phase of the project after releasing their first influential report on the scientific basis of the smelt and salmon Biological Opinions in May 2010.

The second phase of the project is focusing on incorporating science and adaptive management (adjusting restoration approach based on outcomes) into management and restoration of the Bay-Delta. Read More »

Posted in Bay Delta | Leave a comment