Proposal retains dual compliance pathways, tribal beneficial uses
From the State Water Board:
The State Water Resources Control Board today released updated San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan) amendment language, along with a new chapter (Chapter 13) to its 2023 draft staff report that provides additional environmental and economic analysis and an updated project description.
These Bay-Delta Plan updates are similar to those proposed in July 2025, with the overall content and approach largely unchanged. Specifically, the amendments retain two distinct pathways for water right holders: (1) a voluntary agreement (VA) pathway for flow and habitat commitments under the Healthy River and Landscapes (HRL) program; and (2) a regulatory pathway for water right holders that are not part of the HRL proposal.
Both pathways create enforceable requirements to improve conditions in the Bay-Delta watershed.
The board is soliciting public comment on Chapter 13 and the proposed plan amendments until Feb. 2, 2026, and will hold a public hearing Jan. 28-30 in Sacramento, with an option for remote participation.
“The release of these documents puts us on track for updates to the Bay-Delta Plan to come before the State Water Board for adoption in 2026,” said E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the board. “We look forward to the public’s continued feedback and partnership throughout the remainder of this process.”
Since the board released the first draft of proposed updates to the plan in October 2024, it has held multiple written comment periods, a multi-day public hearing, 11 topic-specific working meetings and a multi-day public workshop on the HRL program.
Background
The current proposed updates pertain only to the Sacramento River watershed, Delta eastside tributaries (including the Calaveras, Cosumnes, and Mokelumne Rivers) and Sacramento/Delta for the reasonable protection of fish and wildlife.
In July 2025, board staff proposed updates to the plan that would allow water right holders in the Sacramento/Delta to comply with water quality requirements by either leaving a percentage of unimpaired flow instream (regulatory pathway) or implementing a combination of flow and habitat restoration commitments as a party to the HRL program (voluntary agreement pathway). Under the proposal, the regulatory pathway is available as a backstop to the voluntary pathway.
The July 2025 proposal also incorporated tribal beneficial uses (TBUs) and a formal designation of Tribal Tradition and Culture (CUL) beneficial uses in the Bay-Delta watershed.
The proposed updates released today retain all these provisions.
State law requires the board to adopt water quality control plans to reasonably protect beneficial uses of water and periodically review and update those plans as needed through a public process. The board protects water quality in the Bay-Delta watershed, in part, through its Bay-Delta Plan, which was first adopted by the board in 1978. The plan identifies beneficial uses of water in the watershed, water quality objectives (including necessary water flows) to protect those uses, and an implementation program that includes monitoring and reporting requirements.
To address changing environmental conditions, including the increasing intensity and frequency of drought, the board periodically reviews the plan and considers updated protective measures. In 2018, the board adopted updated objectives and an implementation program to reduce southern Delta salinity and new flow objectives to protect endangered salmonids in the Lower San Joaquin River and its three salmon-bearing tributaries (Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers) and also outlined a framework for revisions to the plan’s Sacramento/Delta requirements.
More information about the proposed Bay-Delta Plan update is available on the board’s website.
The State Water Board’s mission is to preserve, enhance and restore the quality of California’s water resources and drinking water for the protection of the environment, public health and all beneficial uses, and to ensure proper resource allocation and efficient use for present and future generations.
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