A report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office comes as record-breaking temperatures are speeding snowmelt in the state.
By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service
The analyst for California lawmakers advised Wednesday for the Legislature to lean into its oversight role of an upcoming water plan to firm up water supply throughout the parched state.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office in its report focused on an update to the water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. That plan will create water quality standards intended to protect fish and wildlife in the Bay-Delta, along with the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries.
A resource that’s always the subject of dispute, water’s importance has only grown with a changing climate that delivers less rain and the failure of the seven Colorado River basin states — of which California is one — to reach a water-sharing agreement this year.
The analyst’s office noted that the State Water Resource Control Board likely will approve an updated Bay-Delta plan this year. Lawmakers could shoulder an essential role in ensuring its implementation.
“Legislative oversight can help ensure problems are identified and corrective action is taken when needed,” the analyst said in the report, adding: “By holding [the water board] accountable to the Bay-Delta plan’s objectives and shining a light on the successes, challenges, and unintended consequences of the [volunteer agreement] program, the Legislature can help ensure the state achieves its environmental and water management goals for this important watershed.”
The Department of Water Resources couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Voluntary agreements are key to part of the upcoming plan.
Phase one of the plan targets the lower San Joaquin River in central California, its tributaries and salinity goals. It’s been adopted but not implemented.
The second phase is focused on Northern California’s Sacramento River and its tributaries, as well as the Delta. The water board has identified two possible roads for water users to reach compliance, one of which is voluntary agreements.
“The [agreements] reflect negotiated commitments among certain water agencies, the state water project, federally run Central Valley project, and state agencies to provide flows, habitat restoration, and funding as an alternative to typical top-down regulatory requirements,” the analyst said.
The other path is for water users who don’t want an agreement.
The voluntary agreements are binding once the board updates the plan. It’s considered voluntary because people worked together to create a different approach to meet plan goals.
Water users who opt against such agreements would fall under different requirements. Those requirements would call for 55% of unimpaired flows in the rivers year-round, meaning the natural flow of water uninterrupted by dams or other diversions.
The water board likely will adopt voluntary agreements as part of the plan, which could help meet conflicting goals, the analyst said.
Flows and diversions, tools used by the water board, don’t lead to habitat restoration. However, the agreements — with more flexibility than typical regulations — potentially could be crafted to increase flows and improve the habitat, the analyst suggested.
Despite this possible upside, many unknowns remain. It’s uncertain whether flows under such agreements could help native fish recover. Also, the possibility of the federal government pumping more water from the Central Valley project could negatively impact water users under those agreements.
“Given these considerable uncertainties, the [voluntary agreement] program must be closely monitored,” the analyst said.
Water disputes likely will become more contentious over the next few years.
State officials have expressed fear over this winter’s lack of snowfall and unseasonably warm temperatures. On Wednesday, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab said its snow-water equivalent was in the bottom 10% for this time of year. The lab has seen record-breaking temperatures this week, speeding snowmelt.
Additionally, California and six other Colorado River basin states couldn’t reach consensus on an operational agreement. The current agreement expires at the end of this year. Absent an agreement, the federal government will step in.
