DELTA CONVEYANCE PROJECT: State Water Board responds to State Water Contractors

From the State Water Resources Control Board:

The letter is addressed to Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors.

Dear Ms. Pierre:

This responds, on behalf of the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board or Board), to a March 21, 2025 letter from the State Water Contractors (SWC) to Governor Gavin Newsom and the Members of the Board. In the March 21 letter, the SWC express concern about a recent ruling issued by the Presiding Hearing Officer in the evidentiary hearing that the State Water Board’s Administrative Hearings Office (AHO) is conducting on the water right change petitions for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP). Those petitions seek to add two authorized points of diversion to the water right permits for the State Water Project (SWP). The ruling directed the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to submit supplemental information concerning the maximum amount of water diverted and used under the SWP permits before the 2009 deadline to maximize diversion and use under the permits. The SWC assert that this information is outside the scope of the hearing and its consideration will delay the hearing schedule. In a policy statement submitted to the AHO on March 24, 2025, DWR’s Director, Karla Nemeth, expressed similar concerns.