Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Delta Monitoring topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Delta Watermaster reports progress on OpenET reporting, flags South-Delta channel capacity and invasive mussel detection
Summary
The Delta Watermaster told the board on March 4 that the Delta alternative compliance reporting program using OpenET estimates is expanding and that the office expects most 2024 reports to be filed; staff said it will issue notices of violation to a small number of nonfilers.
In a March 4 briefing the Delta Watermaster and the board's Delta lead scientist described progress in a pilot OpenET-based reporting system for legal-Delta water rights, warned of limited channel capacity in the South Delta and flagged the recent detection of the invasive golden mussel in the Stockton/Antioch area.
Lede: Will Anderson, senior engineer for the Delta Watermaster, said the Delta alternative compliance plan (ACP) and the OpenET reporting approach were developed to provide a practical, consistent way to estimate consumptive use in parts of the legal Delta where direct gauging is difficult or prohibitively expensive.
What staff reported: For water year 2023 the pilot reporting program covered roughly 2,700 rights in the legal Delta and staff had reached a 98% reporting rate after outreach. For water year 2024 staff initially extended the filing deadline because remote-sensing data (OpenET products) became available after the statutory Feb. 1 reporting date; under that extension the office reported about 57% of ACP filings at the time of the briefing and said filings were continuing to come in (the presenter updated to roughly 63% on the morning of the meeting). The office said it plans to send certified notice-of-violation letters to about 20 still-unresponsive users and will continue outreach to others.
Flow, channel and ecosystem issues: The Delta Watermaster said field and model studies indicate the southern Delta has constrained channel capacity that complicates circulation and pumping operations and can create localized water-quality impacts. Staff flagged the prior water-level response and dredging discussions, noting a multi-benefit dredging program previously used for circulation and flood/fuel management that lacked long-term funding after 2009. The Watermaster urged state and federal partners to coordinate to address capacity and circulation problems.
Invasive species: Delta science staff and other agencies have confirmed golden mussel detections clustered near the Stockton-Antioch area. The golden mussel is tolerant of a wide salinity and temperature range and can encrust infrastructure; state agencies have begun a coordinated containment and public-outreach program focusing on boat checks, signage and other measures to reduce spread.
Other items: The Watermaster noted continued attention to the Bay-Delta water-quality control update, field data availability and research coordination. Staff recommended continued stakeholder engagement and urged the board to recognize that a complex experimental and data-integration pathway is necessary to make OpenET reporting and broader monitoring reliable for regulatory purposes.
Ending: The briefing signaled steady progress on integrating remote-sensing (OpenET) reporting for Delta water-use accounting, while also cautioning that data systems, circulation constraints and emerging invasive-species risks will require coordinated multi-agency follow-up.
