The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) of the San Francisco Bay area, which has received opposition from the conservation group the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is pressing forward with a change in direction and a grant for ecosystem restoration.
The BDCP plans to use massive tunnels to divert water from the bay delta for commercial and residential water use.
The BDCP plan is currently in the proposal phase. However, other water diversions over the last several years have threatened the ecosystem, including local wildlife and fisheries.
The NRDC along with bay delta conservationists helped pass the Delta Reform Water Act of 2009. This forced the BDCP under the California Department of Water Resources to restore the delta ecosystem and improve water supply reliability, according to the NRDC.
Recent threats to local fisheries involve the native salmon and other native fish that need cool and clean flowing water to thrive. Local salmon numbers have declined rapidly in the last decade, which conservationists believe is caused by water diversion and overuse.
“The San Francisco Bay Delta, and the people and wildlife that depend on it, should not be held hostage by outdated ’tunnel vision',” said Kate Poole, senior attorney in NRDC’s Water Program, in a statement on its website.
Poole added, “Twenty-first century technology opens up new sources of water, including water conservation and efficiency, recycling, and other tools to allow us to reduce our reliance on the delta, allow fish to recover, farmers to farm, and people to turn on the tap and rely on good quality water.”
The NRDC believes that updated water conservation programs such as water efficiency and recycling programs, stormwater capture and reuse, and better groundwater management, along with California residents using less water, can reduce the amount of water taken from the delta, which could reduce or eliminate the need for new tunnels and restore the estuary.
The U.S. Department of the Interior together with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in late July that the BDCP would indeed be moving in a different direction.
The new direction will include development of the tunnel system along with the facility, but it will also include “enforceable and scientifically sound operational rules for any new facility to ensure that it protects and restores water quality, native fisheries, and the health of the delta,” according to the NRDC website.
The new federal plans also include increased water efficiency programs in exporting regions, development of regional water recycling, groundwater banking, and restoration of native fisheries with adequate water flow and environmental measures.
“There is no credible science to support assumptions that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan can increase water diversions from the delta without continuing to sacrifice an ecosystem in peril, California’s salmon fishery, and upstream water rights holders,” stated Poole. “Any proposal to build a massive set of tunnels to divert water around the San Francisco Bay Delta before figuring out how to operate and pay for it, is putting plumbing before sensible policy.”
Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted $11 million to the state of California for habitat and wildlife protection. The BDCP will receive $640,575 for habitat and ecosystem restoration.
The grant was announced by the agency on Aug. 14. The grant includes money from funds provided by the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund under the Endangered Species Act.
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