Category: Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan

Game theory explains what happened in the Voluntary Agreement negotiations

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

In 2009, Michael Hanneman and Caitlin Dyckman published a stark assessment:  "The San Francisco Bay-Delta: A failure of decision-making capacity." A decade later, their game theoretic analysis explains a lot of what happened with the Voluntary Agreement negotiations for the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update. This is the key bit: A well-known theorem from … Continue reading Game theory explains what happened in the Voluntary Agreement negotiations

Voluntary Agreement framework consolidates power and inequities in California water

inclusion exclusion
~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

The California Natural Resources agency released a Voluntary Agreement framework on Monday, March 29, 2022. The framework has been hailed as a "peace" agreement. Reading the Memorandum of Understanding, I find Hisham Ziuaddeen’s synthesis of how power operates across hierarchies of caste, gender, sexuality, ableness and class to be profoundly relevant. Ziuaddeen observed that power … Continue reading Voluntary Agreement framework consolidates power and inequities in California water

On the Voluntary Agreements — comments to the Delta ISB

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

On Thursday March 10, 2022, the Delta Independent Science Board had a presentation by Diane Riddle, Matt Holland, and Erin Foresman of the State Water Resources Control Board on the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. These were my comments: In the interests of fairness and balance, I am going to provide the viewpoint of  environmental … Continue reading On the Voluntary Agreements — comments to the Delta ISB

Will State Water Contractors support disclosure of forecast SWP operations?

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

On January 22, 2022, Dan Bacher published an article, Why is California’s DWR increasing State Water Project allocations in the middle of a drought?  Jennifer Pierre, the General Manager for the State Water Contractors: tweeted the following response to the article: All of the allocated water is already in storage downstream of the Delta. It … Continue reading Will State Water Contractors support disclosure of forecast SWP operations?

In increasing State Water Project allocations, DWR is taking huge risks

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 3 Comments

The Department of Water Resources has just announced that they are increasing the State Water Project allocations to 15%. Given the huge problems last year with watershed runoff forecasts, DWR is taking a huge risk of not meeting environmental water needs later in the year. In November 2021, nine scientists from leading California water research … Continue reading In increasing State Water Project allocations, DWR is taking huge risks

Resources Secretary sends letter to legislature on CEQA exemption in trailer bill

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

On Thursday,  September 9, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot a letter to the members of the legislature regarding the controversial CEQA exemption in the Natural Resources trailer bill, AB/SB 155. Crowfoot's letter addressed objections to the trailer bill previously raised by Restore the Delta, stating: The proposed CEQA exemption may only be applied to habitat … Continue reading Resources Secretary sends letter to legislature on CEQA exemption in trailer bill

The State Water Project was originally designed for a six year drought

Lake Oroville March 2021
~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

A 1983 Bulletin by the Department of Water Resources (Bulletin 160-83) [1] documents that Oroville reservoir was designed to provide long-term carryover storage and reliable water deliveries in case of a repeat of the 1928-1934 drought. The Department of Water Resources  proposed in the same Bulletin 160-83 to change State Water Project operations to take … Continue reading The State Water Project was originally designed for a six year drought