Delta Flows: Actions Over Words
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:44 pm
– Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta
Last week, an important workshop took place at the State Water Resources Control Board about dam operations and how water temperatures would be controlled with water releases for Sacramento River salmon during this year’s drought conditions.
Today, at the beginning of a significant drought, we are holding less water in our reservoirs than we did at the beginning of the 2013-14 drought. This is not a good place to begin conservation efforts from.
The workshop also included detailed information on current water quality conditions for the South Delta as a result of releases, or rather lack of adequate releases, on the San Joaquin River. Due to timing on other projects, we could not participate in this important workshop for California rivers and the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary but our esteemed associates from NRDC, SF BayKeeper, Golden State Salmon, PCFFA, Save California Salmon, and California Sportfishing Projection Alliances led the way.
Here is part of what we learned from our friends.
The Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) are violating Bay-Delta water quality standards. Here is what we have been told (technical details) followed by our commentary in Italics.
(D-1641 is the water statute that sets salinity conditions in the Delta. X2 is where the Delta transitions from freshwater to saltier water. TAF means thousand acre-feet.
FULL STORY: https://www.restorethedelta.org/2021/04 ... s-4-27-21/