QUESTION: Delta Stewardship Council endorses Delta Plan amendment on conveyance, storage, and operations, but what does that mean?.
At the June 22nd meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, the council members voted to endorse an amendment to the Delta Plan to promote options for water conveyance, storage systems, and the operation of both.
The amendment is proposed to be included as part of the overall Delta Plan that was originally adopted by the Council in May 2013.
To manage the resources of the Delta, legislation created the seven-member Delta Stewardship Council and charged it with developing a comprehensive, long-term management plan for the Delta; it also directed the Council ‘to promote options for new and improved Delta conveyance, storage systems, and the operations of both in order to achieve the stated coequal goals.’ In May of 2013, the Council did adopt the first Delta Plan, which contained 14 regulatory policies and over 70 recommendations.
The conveyance, storage, and operations amendment includes recommendations for infrastructure and operations that are intended, in combination with existing Delta Plan policies and recommendations, to further the coequal goals.
The State or local agency pursuing a project must self-certify that it is consistent with the Delta Plan.
The California Water Fix project meets the requirements set forth in the legislation as a covered action, so therefore the Department of Water Resources will have to certify that it is consistent with the regulatory policies of the Delta Plan.
It is important to note that the conveyance, storage, and operations amendment would add recommendations to the Delta Plan; they are not enforceable regulatory policies.
Recommendations are intended to provide guidance to agencies implementing projects; it’s important to note that an agency is only required to certify consistency with the Delta Plan’s regulatory policies, but not the recommendations.
Given the Conveyance, Storage, and Operations amendment is only adding recommendations and not enforceable regulatory policies to the Delta Plan, what effect do you think passage of this amendment will have on the California Water Fix, and ultimately conveyance in the Delta?