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The Bureau of Reclamation provided the following comments<\/a> today to the California State Water Resources Control Board expressing concern with its most recent update to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay\/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This letter follows a previously submitted letter<\/a> to the State Water Board earlier this year, which voiced Reclamation\u2019s initial concerns regarding the development of this draft plan.<\/p>\nOn Aug. 19, the State Water Board announced the release of its final draft update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The Board will consider adoption of the updated Bay-Delta Plan upon the completion of the public comment period on Oct. 28-29.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u200b# # #<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and is the nation\u2019s largest wholesale water supplier and second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Our facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation opportunities, and environmental benefits.<\/p>\n
Letter to the California State Water Resources Control Board<\/p>\n
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY<\/p>\n
State Water Resources Control Board
Division of Water Rights
Attn: Bay-Delta & Hearing Branch
P.O. Box 100
Sacramento, CA\u00a0 95812-0100<\/p>\n
Subject:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 2026 Draft Water Quality Control Plan\u2014Reclamation\u2019s Principal Concerns<\/p>\n
Dear Chair Esquivel:<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) writes to express its serious concern with the State Water Resources Control Board\u2019s August 2026 Draft Water Quality Control Plan (Draft Plan)\u00a0for the Bay-Delta. The\u00a0Draft\u00a0Plan, as\u00a0written, threatens reliability of water supplies that support not only the Central Valley Project (CVP), but the entire fabric of California\u2019s agricultural economy, rural communities, urban centers, and natural vitality. Millions of people and businesses depend on the certainty and reliability of these water supplies. Federal,\u00a0State, and local water projects represent generations of investment and partnership,\u00a0they\u00a0feed the nation and the world, supply our cities and communities, and generate the power that keeps the economy running. Deliveries from those projects are not\u00a0abstract entitlements. They are the purpose of the CVP and State\u00a0Water\u00a0Project (SWP).<\/p>\n
This letter\u00a0states Reclamation\u2019s principal policy objections. Detailed\u00a0technical\u00a0comments<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0attached.<\/p>\n The standard for any Bay-Delta pathway is straightforward: water for people, gold-standard science, adaptive management<\/a>, and measurable results\u2014not process, delay, or undefined flow targets presented as progress.<\/p>\n The Draft Plan does not honor\u00a0the 2022 Memorandum of Understanding and Term Sheet (2022\u00a0MOU). The\u00a02022\u00a0MOU represented a collaborative, integrated approach\u2014combining enforceable flow and habitat commitments, program certainty, and adaptive management.\u00a0The Draft Plan keeps the HRL label and changes the\u00a0terms of the agreement.\u00a0\u00a0It unilaterally\u202fredefines the baseline for additive flows and outflows increasing obligations for HRL parties beyond what was\u202fset forth in the\u00a02022\u00a0MOU.\u00a0It requires\u00a0additional\u00a0CVP and SWP export reductions of 125 TAF in dry and below-normal years and 175 TAF in above-normal years, and sets a regulatory default of 55 percent unimpaired flow. Neither pathway contains a durable mechanism that protects CVP contract performance\u00a0\u2013 water for families, farms, communities.\u00a0The backstop is more water, not the\u00a0portfolio\u00a0the parties negotiated in 2022.<\/p>\n The Draft Plan directly regulates\u00a0federal reservoirs\u00a0through\u00a0carryover storage targets enumerated\u00a0therein, and subject to Executive Director approval of temperature management strategies.\u00a0The Draft\u00a0also\u00a0treats later lawful federal operations as a deficit to be repaid in more HRL water.\u00a0State law cannot impose gatekeeping approval that conditions operations of federal reservoirs or Reclamation\u2019s temperature-management\u00a0obligations\u00a0under the Endangered Species Act and federal project purposes. Reclamation will continue to operate Shasta\u00a0and the CVP\u00a0under the governing Biological Opinion, Records of Decision, project purposes, and Executive Order 14181.<\/p>\n Finally, the Draft Plan centralizes decision-making authority in the Board\u2019s Executive Director, sidelining the collaborative, multi-party governance structure that was a cornerstone of\u00a02022 MOU.\u00a0Whether in the\u00a0collaborative\u00a0framework\u00a0of the MOU\u00a0or the proposed governance structure in the current Draft Plan, we want to be clear:\u00a0a federal Record of Decision or biological opinion does not require State Board staff permission to be implemented.<\/p>\n These elements put\u00a0the Board on a collision course to\u00a0proscribe CVP operations\u00a0that\u00a0are\u00a0inconsistent\u00a0with and\u00a0frustrate the\u00a0purposes of\u00a0federal directives\u00a0for\u00a0the project.<\/p>\n Reclamation and partners throughout the State recognized an opportunity to work with the State Board in this\u00a0Draft Plan\u00a0update that would provide certainty for water users while still ensuring protection of native fish and wildlife through integrated flow and habitat measures. The current draft plan reflects more of what has come to be expected from the State Board \u2013 executive and regulatory overreach, questionable legal authority, and continued downward pressure on water users throughout the state.<\/p>\n Reclamation cannot support or participate in a process that disregards federal law, undermines negotiated certainty, and threatens the viability of the\u00a0CVP. If the Board proceeds on this path, Reclamation will:<\/p>\n Cease any further participation or funding under HRLs or similar state pathways that do not protect CVP contract supplies and project purposes; Our objective is clear:\u00a0Improve water supply outcomes for all of California while incorporating robust, measurable species protection through the best available tools and science. We will do this by keeping federal project infrastructure and contractual supplies intact, consistent with the federal purposes of the CVP and the national interest in food security, rural economic stability, and resilient water and power systems.<\/p>\n The Board\u2019s current approach is not sustainable. We urge the Board to restore the foundational elements of the 2022 MOU, provide the certainty and clarity necessary for effective water management, and abandon the unworkable\u00a0Unimpaired\u00a0Flow\u00a0(UIF)\u00a0pathway. Reclamation stands ready to support pathways\u00a0for the reasonable protection of beneficial uses\u00a0that protect and enhance water supply reliability for the CVP and California, but cannot support a plan that disregards federal law, negotiated certainty, and sound judgment.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Aubrey J.D. Bettencourt cc:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Secretary, Department of the Interior
\nImmediately begin review of outdated water right permit conditions that do not align with current conditions or science;
\nAdvance updated long-term operations decisions and, where warranted, reinitiate Endangered Species Act consultation to secure greater operational flexibility consistent with law;
\nMaximize deliveries under existing authorities and recent Records of Decision that have already shown the capacity to increase average annual supplies when operations are aligned with project purposes;
\nAccelerate infrastructure that restores\u00a0and expands\u00a0conveyance capacity\u00a0of federal, state, and local conveyance facilities to take advantage of water supply when it is\u00a0available;
\nModernize and optimize critical infrastructure that increases real wet water storage<\/a>; and
\nInsist on science and modeling that accurately distinguish Project effects from the dominant drivers of environmental conditions throughout the CVP and that measure real species\u2019 benefits rather than assuming them from flow volumes alone.<\/p>\n
Principal Deputy Commissioner
Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Commissioner
Bureau of Reclamation<\/p>\n
Assistant Secretary \u2013 Water and Science
Director, California Department of\u00a0Water Resources
CVP contractor leadership as appropriate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the US Bureau of Reclamation: The Bureau of Reclamation provided the following comments today to the California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179584,45714,7,9,8,29030,179585,59638,179586],"class_list":["post-454701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bay-delta-water-quality-control-plan","tag-bureau-of-reclamation","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-delta","tag-healthy-rivers-and-landscapes","tag-state-water-resources-control-board","tag-voluntary-agreements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}