SACRAMENTO, California — California's State Water Resources Control Board has adopted the first major update to the Bay-Delta Plan's Sacramento River and Delta protections since 1995, voting 4-1 late on Thursday, October 29, after two days of debate in Sacramento in which more than 200 people spoke. The plan rewrites how the state governs pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — the heart of California's water system — and folds Governor Gavin Newsom's Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program of negotiated "voluntary agreements" into the state's official water quality control plan.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
The Bay-Delta is the hub through which water reaches nearly 30 million Californians and about 4 million acres of farmland, according to the Governor's Office. State and federal pumps in the Delta send water through aqueducts to farms in the Central Valley and San Joaquin Valley and to cities as far south as Los Angeles. The same watershed sustains Chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, longfin smelt and Delta smelt — native fish whose populations have declined sharply as pumping and drought have intensified.
Source: Los Angeles Times via Europe Says
What the board actually decided
Under the traditional approach, every water agency had to limit pumping to maintain required minimum river flows. The adopted plan breaks from that model: agencies may instead choose the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes pathway, under which they commit to providing certain river flows for the environment and pay for habitat restoration projects — restoring wetlands and floodplains along rivers — in place of some flow requirements. Dozens of local water agencies have already signed such agreements and begun investing, the Los Angeles Times reported. Agencies that do not join, or that fail to meet their commitments, fall back under the traditional regulatory pathway, which the board describes as an enforceable backstop.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
State officials said water agencies have committed about $2.9 billion under the program. The Governor's Office said the plan promotes restoration of more than 27,000 acres of aquatic habitat; the Times reported agencies have committed to roughly 20,000 acres of floodplain habitat and more than 5,000 acres of tidal wetlands. Early projects named by the administration include a $360 million Instream Flow Water Purchase Program to secure river flows in ecologically critical months, the Tide's End project to restore more than 2,200 acres of tidal and floodplain habitat in the north Delta, the roughly 3,000-acre Little Egbert Tract project pairing flood protection with fish habitat, and the 1,600-acre Prospect Island tidal restoration.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
What officials said — and what critics said
"We don't have to choose between healthy rivers and reliable water supplies — California needs both," Governor Gavin Newsom said in the administration's statement. California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot told the board the plan was "a paradigm shift" and "the most durable, balanced way" to restore environmental conditions while protecting water security. Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel called it a "modernized regulatory approach" and a "generational shift." The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers water for 19 million people, supported the plan; its Bay-Delta resources chief Nina Hawk called it "a landmark achievement."
Source: Office of the Governor of California
Most speakers at the Sacramento hearing opposed the voluntary agreements, the Times reported. Jon Rosenfield, science director of San Francisco Baykeeper, called the plan "an extinction plan." Barry Nelson of the Golden State Salmon Association called it "a scam" that would make the ecosystem worse. Malissa Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, told the board: "You are on the wrong side of history, and we will prevail." Board member Nichole Morgan, who grew up fishing in the Delta, cast the only no vote. Speakers also noted that about 80 percent of the water diverted and pumped in California is used by agriculture.
Source: Los Angeles Times via Europe Says
Delta pumping rules decide how much water moves south to the farm belt where many Punjabi-American families farm and run trucking and cold-storage businesses — from Fresno and Merced to Bakersfield and Yuba City. Supporters say the deal protects farm water supplies in a hotter, drier climate; fishing and environmental groups say it leaves too little water in the rivers for salmon, on which coastal fishing jobs also depend.
Background: a 30-year-old plan and a long fight
The last substantial changes to the Bay-Delta Plan for much of this watershed date to 1995. Newsom brought state, local and federal partners together in 2022 to build the voluntary-agreements framework, arguing that court fights over flow-only rules had produced decades of gridlock. The board's decision followed four iterations of draft language, more than 200 days of public comment, tribal and environmental justice listening sessions and public workshops, according to the Governor's Office. The plan also recognizes "Tribal Tradition and Culture" as a protected beneficial use of water for the first time, and provides for a tribal advisory committee — a provision some tribal speakers at the hearing said still fell short of real inclusion.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
The federal problem
Two big participants are already balking. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the federal Central Valley Project — one of the Delta's two main water systems — said last month the plan will shortchange farmers by restricting pumping and that, unless it is changed, it will not participate, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in expected federal funding in doubt. Westlands Water District, the largest irrigation district in the Central Valley, also said it plans to pull out of the program, arguing the adopted plan abandons key parts of the agreements negotiated with the state in 2022.
Source: Los Angeles Times via Europe Says
What happens next
The adopted update now goes to California's Office of Administrative Law for approval. After that, board staff must release a draft implementation methodology within one year and develop implementing regulations within two years, and implementation of the voluntary-agreements pathway must begin no later than October 1, 2027. The plan runs on an eight-year horizon with annual scientific review — and triennial board review, under the Governor's Office description — and regulators say an agency that fails to meet its commitments can be put back under the traditional rules. Environmental groups are expected to weigh legal challenges, and the Bureau of Reclamation's refusal to participate leaves the plan's biggest funding and operations question open.