State Water Board adopts innovative new model to protect California’s Bay-Delta, water and wildlife

SACRAMENTO – In a landmark development driving large-scale ecosystem restoration and creating greater security for the heart of California’s water system, the State Water Resources Control Board today adopted modernized water quality protections for the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta.

The updated Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (Bay-Delta Plan) strengthens protections for native fish and wildlife, provides water security, improves water quality and positions the state to better withstand the challenges of a changing climate.

Today’s decision concludes a multi-year public process and reflects years of scientific study, hundreds of hours of public engagement, and significant input from environmental organizations, tribes, water agencies, and local communities.

“This groundbreaking plan begins a new era of environmental protection, creating enforceable flow standards while giving communities, farms and industry the flexibility to manage their supplies and work together to restore California’s most important and overburdened watershed,” said State Water Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel. “The new plan also gives us the modern tools we need — especially increased monitoring and data collection — to manage the Bay-Delta for the 21st century. Today we celebrate the collective work that brought us here and the progress this represents for the entire state.”

At the center of the updated plan is a new model for protecting water quality that provides two robust, enforceable pathways to achieve the plan’s objectives and improve the health of the Bay-Delta. One pathway pairs commitments by participants in the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes (HRL) program — known as the voluntary agreements compliance pathway — with enforceable requirements and a strong regulatory backstop. The other pathway is a more traditional regulatory pathway focusing primarily on enhanced flows.

Relying on collaboration and innovation, the voluntary pathway combines river flows, habitat restoration and rigorous scientific oversight to improve the health of the Bay-Delta. Independent science will measure progress, and if anticipated results do not materialize, the regulatory pathway provides an enforceable backstop to realize flow requirements. However, if conditions in the watershed improve and meet the plan’s objectives, the plan will demonstrate that ecosystem protection can be achieved at a lower water supply cost to communities, farms and industry.

The voluntary pathway has regulatory effect and is subject to ongoing monitoring and review. Flow contributions are verified through public accounting, and habitat restoration projects must meet construction milestones. The board can modify or end the pathway if commitments are not met.

“Ultimately, the test for the new Bay-Delta Plan will be whether the ecosystem becomes healthier, native fish populations recover and the people who depend on this extraordinary ecosystem can sustain their communities and livelihoods,” Esquivel said.

In particular, the updated plan:

• Establishes enforceable protections to ensure water right holders meet a clear environmental standard, either through an approved voluntary agreements pathway or traditional regulatory pathway.
• Harnesses creativity and collaboration to allow water users, farmers, landowners, conservation organizations and government agencies to develop and implement projects that deliver environmental benefits.
• Recognizes “Tribal Tradition and Culture” as a protected beneficial use of water for the first time, reflecting the deep cultural connections between tribes, rivers and native fish such as salmon.
• Increases river flows and enables restoration of more than 27,000 acres of aquatic habitat.
• Expands monitoring of harmful algal blooms across the Delta and supports the board’s development of statewide water quality objectives for harmful algal blooms and cyanotoxins.
• Lessens periods of reduced water supply for municipalities and water districts while maintaining protections for Delta flows in drier times.
• Supports a HRL program designed to direct roughly $2.9 billion in state, federal and local investment to watershed-scale, multi-benefit projects that restore ecosystem function, improve flows and reconnect floodplains.
• Uses science to measure results, with annual reporting, triennial board review and a dedicated science program that relies on robust data collection and monitoring to determine whether restoration efforts are improving ecological conditions.

Pending Office of Administrative Law approval, board staff will release a draft implementation methodology within one year and develop implementing regulations within two years, and the voluntary agreements pathway will begin implementation no later than Oct. 1, 2027

Background

The Bay-Delta supports some of the state’s most iconic and threatened fish and wildlife, sustains tribes and other local communities, and provides water for nearly 30 million Californians and 4 million acres of farmland. These benefits are essential to the economy and environment. But the Delta and its tributaries have long been under threat. Native fish populations have suffered, habitat has been lost, and the watershed faces increasing pressure from climate change and competing demands for water.

Federal and state law require that the plan, like other water quality control plans, be reviewed periodically and updated as necessary to protect beneficial uses of water, which include water for cities, agriculture, ecosystem functions (including the protection of aquatic species), recreation (boating, fishing, swimming), navigation, groundwater recharge and tribal uses.

Today’s updated plan was shaped by an extensive and transparent public process that included four iterations of draft language, more than 200 days of total public comment, dedicated tribal and environmental justice listening sessions, and other public workshops.

More information about the plan, including an updated Frequently Asked Questions, is available on the board’swebsite.

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.