FRAMEWORK OF VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS
TO UPDATE AND IMPLEMENT THE BAY-DELTA WATER QUALITY CONTROL PLAN
February 4, 2020

1

 Voluntary Agreements
• State and federal law require the State Water Board to protect beneficial uses.
• The State Water Board must complete its update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality
Control Plan to protect beneficial uses in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers
and Bay-Delta.
• In recent years, salmon and other fish species that rely on these waterways have
experienced dramatic declines and several native species are now threatened
with extinction.
• Voluntary commitments of flows and habitat can help recover these fish
populations more quickly and holistically than regulatory requirements, and with
less negative social and economic impacts.
2

 Refined Voluntary Agreements
• Includes the essential terms to finalize Voluntary Agreements to
implement the update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
• Supplements the Planning Agreement (March 2019) and the
Framework Proposal (December 2018).
• Expands commitments of flows, habitat restoration and funding to
build a package that the state team believes can meet scientific and
legal adequacy.
• Goal is to execute enforceable VA agreement with commitments. We
have made significant progress towards securing the assets required.
3

 State Team’s Process to Generate Refined VA
Framework
• Water users detailed commitments from December 2018 Proposal in March 2019
Planning Agreement.
• State Team modeled flows and habitat commitments.
• Worked with water users and conservation groups to build a governance
structure that will adaptively manage flows and habitat through scientific
monitoring and experimentation.
• Interagency team performed a preliminary assessment of proposed Voluntary
Agreements and what is needed for scientific and legal adequacy to implement
the Bay Delta Plan update.
4

 New Voluntary Agreement Framework
• Provides 800,000-900,000 acre feet of new flows for the environment above existing
conditions in dry, below normal and above normal water year types, and several hundred
thousand acre feet in critical and wet years to help recover fish populations.
• Restores over 60,000 acres of new habitat, from targeted improvements in tributaries to
large landscape-level restoration in the Sacramento Valley.
• Generates over $5 billion in new funding for environmental improvements.
• Enables a new, collaborative science hub for monitoring and experimentation.
• Expands tools to recover fish populations; more adaptiveness to respond to changing
conditions.
• Expedites implementation; gets water and habitat added quickly.
5

 Baseline for Improvements
• The baseline to which VA flows are to be added is recent long-term average
annual tributary flows and Delta outflows, including flows required by Water
Rights Decision 1641 (D-1641) and the 2008/09 Biological Opinion (BiOp) as
well as other flows that are recent historical conditions. For purposes of
implementation, this total volume of water may be flexibly re-shaped in
timing and seasonality in order to test biological hypotheses while reasonably
protecting beneficial uses. Such shaping will be subject to VAs’ governance
program.
• The baseline for habitat restoration measures is physical conditions and
regulatory requirements existing as of December 2018, when the State Water
Board adopted Resolution 2018-0059.
6

 Key Water Quality Objectives
• Advances a goal to achieve doubling of CA salmon populations
by 2050. This puts a target date on what is known as the
Doubling Objective for Salmon.
• Implements an objective that provides for viability of native fish
populations.

7

 Increased Flows above Baseline
(TAF)

San Joaquin Basin
Sacramento Basin
Water Purchase Programs
Exporters
Subtotal New Outflow Above Baseline (Year 1)
New Water Projects & Programs (Before Year 8)
Total New Outflow Above Baseline (Year 1-8)
Exporters (Spring baseline maintenance)
Total New and Re-operated Outflows
State Team’s Adequacy Target

C
63
37
125
0
225
45
270
0

D
215
276
109
100
700
202
902
200

BN
249
256
195
0
700
212
912
300

AN
182
281
237
0
700
115
815
300

W
50
45
205
0
300
45
345
0

270
260350

1,102
7401,000

1,212
8401,100

1,115
8401,200

345
300*350
8

*Only applies to a subset of wet years

 Habitat Improvements Above Baseline
Area
San Joaquin Basin

Acres pursuant to Planning Agreement
35 (instream), 80 (floodplain)
307 (spawning habitat)

Sacramento Basin

487.5 (instream habitat)
Up to 5,360 (floodplain habitat, middle
Sutter Bypass and tributary habitat)

North Delta Arc
and Suisun Marsh

5,455

Additional Acres per Framework to
support > 50% of Doubling Objective
246 (floodplain)
200 (tributary floodplain habitat)
8,000 (floodplain habitat: lower Sutter
Bypass)
58,600 (floodplain habitat: Sutter
Bypass, Butte Sink, Colusa
Basin)
110,000 (food production from
flooding rice fields)
5,000*
9
*Contingent on securing additional funding

 Governance, Science and Adaptive Management
• Governance program to strategically deploy flows and habitat, implement a
science program, and develop strategic plans and annual reports.
• Dedicated staff
• Environmental water trustee

• Comprehensive science program guided by structured decision-making
processes to determine and/or to adjust flow and non-flow measures.
• This program will implement specific experiments to test specific
outcomes, learn from the experiments, and facilitate a collaborative and
transparent process.
10

 15-year Implementation Costs
$5.2 billion investment to improve environmental conditions within the watershed.
Science and Adaptive Management,
$285 (5%)
Voluntary Paid Fallowing, $456 (9%)
Habitat: $1,684 (32%)

Water Purchases, $1,204 (23%)
($ Millions)

New Water Projects and Programs, $1,632 (31%)

11

 Funding Sources for VA Investment
(proposed for the 15-year term)

Federal Government: $740
(14%)

Water Users: $2,340
(44%)

State Government: $2,220
(42%)

($ Millions)

12

 Implementation
• The VAs remain in effect for a term of 15 years.
• The State Water Board will work with stakeholders to develop accounting procedures to
ensure VA flows materialize as envisioned.
• The State Water Board will use its legal authority to protect VA flows against diversions for
other purposes.
• Non-signatories to the VA will be subject to the State Water Board’s regulatory requirements
to achieve unimpaired flows.
• The State Team will work with willing participants to expedite early implementation in 2020,
or as soon as possible following applicable environmental review, including, but not limited
to, dedication of new flows, advanced planning and implementation of habitat projects.

13

 Steps to Finalize VAs
• This Framework is an important milestone – but there is work ahead to
finalize the VAs.
• Work to harmonize VA with pumping rules to protect endangered species.
• Work with VA participants to refine framework to finalize outstanding
governance, policy and legal issues.
• Submit proposal to the State Water Board for a third-party scientific review,
environmental review, and a public consideration.
• Consistent with applicable laws, certain early actions could also be
implemented to accelerate realization of VA benefits.
14

 THANK YOU

For your continued constructive engagement and
support