Governor’s new salmon strategy ignores existing biological goals

Governor Newsom’s new salmon strategy breathlessly commits to the following:

By 2025, begin to use biological indicators,
referred to as biological goals, to inform
decision making during implementation
of the updated Bay-Delta Water Quality
Control Plan. (SWRCB).

But biological goals for salmon have been part of the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan since the 1995 update. The State Water Resources Control Board’s 2018 Water Quality Control Plan update states:

[Decision 1641] assigned responsibility to the USBR and DWR to comply with the river flow and operational objectives for fish and wildlife. These objectives help protect salmon migration through the Bay-Delta Estuary. [Decision 1641] did not require separate actions to implement the narrative objective for salmon because the State Water Board expects that implementation of the numeric flow-dependent objectives and other non-flow measures will implement this objective.

The narrative objective for salmon protection in the Delta is consistent with the anadromous fish doubling goals of the CVPIA. Under the Anadromous Fish Restoration Program (AFRP), State, federal and local entities are continuing to implement programs within and outside the Delta geared towards achieving the CVPIA anadromous fish doubling goals.

The State Water Board intends to invite DFG, NOAA Fisheries, and other agencies monitoring the progress of the salmon doubling effort to present to the Board the results from ongoing studies, fishery improvement programs, and any recommendations for a specific numeric objective at subsequent workshops every two years starting from the date of the adoption of this Plan.