State Water Board hears sharp divide over voluntary agreements, drought curtailments and protection of Delta flow base

The State Water Resources Control Board on Jan. 20 held a hybrid public workshop in Sacramento to take comment on draft Sacramento–Delta updates to the Bay‑Delta Plan, focusing on two disputed ideas: a drought curtailment or “in‑stream flow protection” provision and measures intended to protect voluntary‑agreement (VA) flows and the base they are added to from being diminished by new water supply projects.

The workshop, chaired by State Water Resources Control Board Chair Joaquin Esquivel, drew more than 120 speakers in person and online and ran through presentations by staff, four panels and a long public‑comment period. “This is the time and place for the public workshop to receive comments on the draft Sacramento Delta updates to the water quality control plan,” Esquivel said at the start of the meeting.

Why it matters: the Bay‑Delta watershed provides drinking water to millions, supports farms statewide and sustains fisheries and tribal cultural practices. Board staff described two draft approaches intended to reduce the need for emergency temporary urgency change petitions (TUCPs) during droughts and to prevent new diversions from eroding the additional flows that would be provided by the VA framework. Speakers representing tribes, fishing and environmental groups urged the board to adopt regulatory flow protections; water agencies and project operators urged a pathway that recognizes HRL/VA investments and more adaptive science.

Staff presentation and the options on the table

Diane Riddle, assistant deputy director in the board’s Division of Water Rights, introduced staff presenters Jeff Laird and Claudia Bucelli. Laird summarized the two topics for the day: (1) an in‑stream flow protection provision staff described as an alternative to an expansion of standard permit term 91 to broaden curtailments during drought; and (2) options to “protect the VA flow base” from being reduced by new or expanded diversions.

Jeff Laird said the staff proposal to protect minimum Delta outflows in very dry years would expand curtailments in order of water‑right priority (making base Delta outflows unavailable for diversion) so that the projects would not be solely responsible for meeting minimum outflows during extreme droughts. He told the board the base Delta outflow range in question is the plan’s Table 3/D‑1641 range (roughly 3,000–7,100 cubic feet per second, depending on conditions) and emphasized…