From the State Water Resources Control Board:
On October 25, 2024, State Water Resources Control Board staff released for public review and comment a draft of potential updates to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (Bay-Delta Plan). The draft updates to the Bay-Delta Plan include possible options for incorporating regulatory provisions based on concepts described in the Board’s September 2023 draft Staff Report, as well as provisions based on voluntary agreements (VAs) proposed by water users and state and federal agencies, referred to as the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Proposal (that would also be regulatory provisions if incorporated into the Bay-Delta Plan).
In the October 2024 draft Bay-Delta Plan, the Board identified that it expected to receive an additional proposal from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) for possible provisions to protect the VA flow base (see Box 4 of the draft plan). On January 16, 2025, DWR provided a proposal to the Board, which is available for review on the Board’s website here. This proposal and two other options developed by Board staff described in the draft updates to the Bay-Delta Plan will be discussed at the Board’s public workshop on January 23, 2025. For more information about this workshop, please view the notice.