Draft Delta Solution Not Good Enough

The Delta Stewardship Council, charged with adopting a plan to restore the Delta's ecosystem and improve statewide water-supply reliability, is about to move forward with a draft plan that could substantially impact San Juan customers by:

• Reducing the amount of surface water San Juan can use.
• Significantly increasing our costs and customer rates by requiring San Juan to pay fees to state agencies to support statewide programs to restore the Delta's environmental resources.
• Combining San Juan into a huge regional jurisdiction of dissimilar water agencies under the control of the Delta Stewardship Council.

Call to Action

The Council should revise the draft plan to address the unfair impacts to San Juan and similar water districts. We are encouraging our customers to send letters to the council to express dissatisfaction with the current plan. When enough people speak up, the council will need to look more critically at their proposed solution and find a plan that is fair to upstream water users like San Juan.

- Click here for a draft letter you can send.
- Add your own thoughts or edit the contents of the letter as much or as little as you like.
- Make sure to add your name or signature to the bottom.
- Copy and paste the text into the body of an email or print out and mail to the address listed at the top.

The Delta and the Delta Plan

Background

California's Delta is located where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flow together southwest of Sacramento. It is very important for statewide water management because the pumps that send water to the San Joaquin Valley and southern California draw water from the Delta. San Juan is affected by decisions relating to the Delta because water released from Folsom Lake feeds the American River, which ultimately feeds the Delta.

After 2000, the populations of fish that depend on the Delta, like Delta smelt and salmon, seriously declined. These declines triggered many lawsuits, reductions in the amounts of water being sent to the San Joaquin Valley and southern California, a great deal of discussion about requiring increased water flows from rivers like the American River that are upstream of the Delta, and proposals for new fees on water suppliers to fund new state agencies.

In the 1950s, northern California made a deal with southern California to let them use our water. However, that deal clearly states that northern California get's to use its local water to meet its local demands first. There are advantages to living in Northern California, close to the source of the water that comes out of your tap. San Juan has always had – and should always have – enough water to serve its residents at a reasonable cost.

2009 Legislation

In 2009, the Legislature adopted a package of water laws in response to the Delta's problems. One of those laws requires San Juan and other agencies to reduce their per capita water use by 20% by 2020. Another 2009 law established a new state agency, the Delta Stewardship Council, and requires the council to adopt, by January 1, 2012, a Delta Plan that would establish a path for the state to achieve the co-equal goals of restoring the Delta's ecosystem and improving statewide water-supply reliability.

San Juan's Key Concerns

The Delta Stewardship Council has published a draft Delta Plan that will likely be the basis of the environmental review that the Council must conduct before adopting a final Delta Plan later this year. Parts of the plan undermine San Juan's ability to deliver reliable, high-quality water at a reasonable cost to customers.

• Strict and vague limits on our local water supply use. The current draft allows the State Water Resources Control Board to prevent water suppliers from using more of their local water until they have implemented "all other feasible water supply alternatives." This could require San Juan to implement even more water conservation or very expensive projects like, delivering recycled water or groundwater, which would have to be pumped uphill many miles, before using water out of Folsom Lake.
• New fees. The draft plan recommends the California legislature give the unelected Delta Stewardship Council the power to assess fees against water suppliers, like San Juan, to fund new bureaucracies, such as the Council. Those fees would increase San Juan's rates while producing little or no benefit for San Juan's ratepayers.
• Increased and excessive state control. A map, included in the draft plan, shows the plan will affect an area extending far beyond the Delta to include almost 2/3 of California from Oregon to Mexico. The Delta Stewardship Council should not have a jurisdiction that stretches from the Oregon border to Mexico. San Juan is in the list of agencies that might have to help implement the Delta plan, even though we asked not to be.

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