Responsible Exports Plan

Environmental Water Caucus | May 29th, 2013

The consensus diagnosis for the Delta estuary is dire. The California Environmental Water Caucus prescribes more river flows and reduced fresh water exports to help the D

The consensus diagnosis for the Delta estuary is dire. The California Environmental Water Caucus prescribes more river flows and reduced fresh water exports to help the Delta recover. The EWC’s plan demonstrates how water supply reliability can be improved while reducing exports from the Bay Delta Estuary. Many of our recommendations have been presented to the Delta Stewardship Council as part of Alternative 2 for the Delta Plan. We have now packaged this series of related actions into a single alternative for evaluation in any future NEPA or CEQA evaluations, or by the State Water Resources Control Board. The actions are largely based on the EWC report California Water Solutions Now, (www.ewccalifornia.org), which can be referenced for supporting details. This package of actions (“The RX Plan”) represents the EWC alternative to the BDCP. The RX Plan includes a unique combination of actions that will open the discussion for alternatives to the currently failed policies which continuously attempt to use water as though it were a limitless resource. The RX Plan is about far more than just reduced exports. The uniqueness of this Plan is that while it will reduce the quantity of water exported from the Bay Delta Estuary, in order to protect the health of the Estuary’s habitat and fisheries with increased inflows and outflows, it also contains actions that will reduce the demand for water and increase supplies for exporters south of the Delta in order to compensate for the reduced south-of-Delta exports. It is the only extant plan that will modernize existing facilities in the Bay-Delta with improved fish screens at the South Delta, levees reinforced above the PL84-99 standard, and significantly increased flows in order to recover habitat and fish stocks, while avoiding the huge infrastructure costs of tunnels under the Delta. It will also provide increased self-reliance for south-of-Delta water users through inter-regional water transfers and south of Delta groundwater storage. The reinforced levees will provide increased reliability of the water supplies through the Delta. And it will accomplish the legislated goals of Estuary restoration and water reliability for billions of dollars less than currently contemplated plans.

Restoring Habitat with Science and Society in Mind

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | April 8th, 2014

This Issue Paper, authored by Jessica Davenport, the Council's Program Manager for Ecosystem Restoration and Land Use, is entitled Restoring Habitat with Science and Soci

This Issue Paper, authored by Jessica Davenport, the Council's Program Manager for Ecosystem Restoration and Land Use, is entitled Restoring Habitat with Science and Society in Mind.  The purpose of the 22-page paper is to survey restoration activities in the Delta; describe the needs, progress and opportunities related to restoration; and propose key areas of focus for the Delta Stewardship Council and other agencies to advance habitat restoration. Some of the areas of focus for Council staff for the next two years include: Continue to provide early consultation on habitat restoration projects that are Covered Actions under the Delta Plan in order to advise project proponents on using best available science and adaptive management and avoiding or reducing conflicts with existing uses, where feasible. Report on habitat performance measures by December 2014 and again in December 2015. Work with others to complete at least one of the landscape-scale conceptual models and associated landscape habitat metrics for the priority habitat restoration areas. Enagage Delta Plan Interagency Implementation Committee members in discussions of challenges and potential solutions related to land acquistion and permit coordination.

Review of 2018 Ocean Salmon Fisheries Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Document for the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan

Pacific Fishery Management Council | February 11th, 2019

Review of and recommendations for monitoring contaminants and their effects in the San Francisco Bay−Delta

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | December 3rd, 2019

Legacy and current-use contaminants enter into and accumulate throughout the San Francisco Bay−Delta (Bay−Delta), and are present at concentrations with known effects

Legacy and current-use contaminants enter into and accumulate throughout the San Francisco Bay−Delta (Bay−Delta), and are present at concentrations with known effects on species important to this diverse watershed. There remains major uncertainty and a lack of focused research able to address and provide understanding of effects across multiple biological scales, despite previous and ongoing emphasis on the need for it. These needs are challenging specifically because of the established regulatory programs that often monitor on a chemical-by-chemical basis, or in which decisions are grounded in lethality-based endpoints. To best address issues of contaminants in the Bay−Delta, monitoring efforts should consider effects of environmentally relevant mixtures and sub-lethal impacts that can affect ecosystem health. These efforts need to consider the complex environment in the Bay−Delta, including variable abiotic (e.g., temperature, salinity) and biotic (e.g., pathogens) factors. This calls for controlled and focused research, and the development of a multi-disciplinary contaminant monitoring and assessment program that provides information across biological scales. Information gained in this manner will contribute toward evaluating parameters that could alleviate ecologically detrimental outcomes. This review is a result of a Special Symposium convened at the University of California−Davis (UCD) on January 31, 2017 to address critical information needed on how contaminants affect the Bay−Delta. The UCD Symposium focused on new tools and approaches for assessing multiple stressor effects to freshwater and estuarine systems. Our approach is similar to the recently proposed framework laid out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that uses weight of evidence to scale toxicological responses to chemical contaminants in a laboratory, and to guide the conservation of priority species and habitats. As such, we also aimed to recommend multiple endpoints that could be used to promote a multi-disciplinary understanding of contaminant risks in Bay−Delta while supporting management needs.

Review of Delta Conveyance Project Benefit-Cost Analysis: Implications for Decision-Makers and Financing

University of the Pacific, Center for Business and Policy Research | June 24th, 2024

Review of North Delta Salmon Out-Migration Study

CALFED | January 23rd, 2008

This document is a review of the North Delta Salmon Out-Migration Study (NDSOS) proposed to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) by a group of PIs l

This document is a review of the North Delta Salmon Out-Migration Study (NDSOS) proposed to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) by a group of PIs lead by Jon Burau of the USGS. To carry out this review, the CALFED Science program, acting at the request of DWR and the PIs, convened a panel that was given a substantial written proposal describing the study. In addition to the written proposal, the PIs gave a series of presentations to a majority of the panel members at a public workshop held on January 10, 2008. The presentations provided many details about the proposed study that were not included in the written proposal. The panel was charged by CALFED to: “.... make recommendations concerning, and oversee incorporation of modifications to, the proposed study to ensure that, when funded, executed, and analyzed, the proposed investigation will provide the best-available science when characterizing the hydrodynamics and movement of out-migrating salmon smolts in the north Delta region in response to several alternate regional configurations.” This report is the panel’s response to that charge. In the sections that follow, we start by describing those aspects of the proposal that the panel found would work well or were strong positives. We follow this with a critique of perceived shortcomings of the proposal and a set of recommendations for possible changes to the proposed work that would improve the proposed study. These recommendations were based on the information in the written proposal provided to the panel and on the presentations made at the public workshop.

Review of Research on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as an Evolving Place

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | May 11th, 2017

Research on the social and natural processes that sustain the unique values of the Delta as an evolving place is sparse and sporadic. We found seven research projects and

Research on the social and natural processes that sustain the unique values of the Delta as an evolving place is sparse and sporadic. We found seven research projects and no established research programs directly aimed at developing an understanding of the processes supporting the Delta as an evolving place. Far more research occurs on other Delta topics, such as water flows, contaminants and nutrients, and at risk species. Nor did we find evidence that research in these other areas is identifying natural processes that could protect and enhance the values of the changing Delta. We therefore recommend an expanded, sustained commitment to research on the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place. The level of effort could resemble that in other Delta subject areas. Priority should be given to research that supports achieving the coequal goals in a manner that protects and enhances these unique values.

Review of Science Used to Estimate Water Supply Reliability Involving the Delta

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | April 3rd, 2018

Review of SWRCB’s “Working Draft Scientific Basis Report for New and Revised Flow Requirements on the Sacramento River and Tributaries, Eastside Tributaries to the Delta, Delta Outflow, and Interior Delta Operations”

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | February 23rd, 2017

Insightful, informative, well-illustrated, clearly written—these are among our overall impressions of “Working Draft Scientific Basis Report for New and Revised Flow

Insightful, informative, well-illustrated, clearly written—these are among our overall impressions of “Working Draft Scientific Basis Report for New and Revised Flow Requirements on the Sacramento River and Tributaries, Eastside Tributaries to the Delta, Delta Outflow, and Interior Delta Operations”. The comments below focus on recommended improvements. In particular, we recommend clarifying, and further justifying scientifically, the proposed use of percent of “unimpaired flow” as the main basis for establishing an annual environmental water budget. We also suggest presenting a further review of cold-water management, a deeper analysis of non-flow stressors, additional consideration of near-term responses to climate change, and elaboration of how regulations managed adaptively may improve scientific understanding of environmental flows.

Review of the Draft 2022-2026 Science Action Agenda

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | January 28th, 2022