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Commission urged to seek peer review as staff prepares resolution on Tuolumne voluntary agreement
Summary
Staff previewed a draft resolution on the Bay‑Delta voluntary agreement for the Tuolumne River and related basins and said the VA was published Feb. 7; commissioners and public speakers pressed for independent peer review, clearer biological objectives and transparency of modeling assumptions.
Steve Ritchie, assistant general manager for water, briefed the commission on the State Water Board’s Bay‑Delta Plan amendments and ongoing negotiations over voluntary agreements (VAs). He summarized a proposed 15‑year Tuolumne River VA that couples functional flows with $76 million in capital investments and other non‑flow habitat measures, and said the draft TUO‑VA was made available to the public on Feb. 7.
Ritchie told commissioners staff is preparing a resolution for the commission to consider on Feb. 26 to state policy‑level direction on the voluntary agreement process. He emphasized the need for transparency in modeling assumptions and additional technical detail, noting that staff has asked for the state’s flow modeling inputs to verify results.
Commissioners and staff discussed the role of independent peer review and adaptive management. Several commissioners said outcome‑driven biological objectives — not only flow targets — would help focus negotiations. Ritchie and other staff said that building a fully specified adaptive management program would take substantial additional time, potentially many months to a year, and that the VA negotiation schedule may not allow full detail by the March 1 watershed‑wide deadline the state set.
Public commenters amplified the call for peer review. Barry Nelson of the Golden Gate Salmon Association said peer review is how science gets resolved and urged the commission to press for expedited independent review of the PUC’s models; he also warned that parts of the VA package appear to assume weakened legal protections in the Delta and urged careful scrutiny of federal modeling.
Other commenters — including conservation groups and speakers representing Restore Hetch Hetchy positions — urged the commission to consider supply resilience and to evaluate trade‑offs should the commission have to provide additional releases. Throughout the discussion staff recommended engaging in the parallel environmental review processes (including the FERC draft EIS for Don Pedro relicensing) and continuing stakeholder coordination.
Ritchie closed by offering draft resolution elements staff is considering: support for the voluntary agreement process with transparency, maintaining consistency with San Francisco’s water supply and stewardship responsibilities, pursuit of early implementation of experimental measures where appropriate, and development of an adaptive management process tied to performance measures.
