This Draft Strategic Plan (Plan) and appendices provide an overview of the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program, including details on the flow and non-flow measures (i.e., habitat restoration) in the March 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is the foundation of the program (Appendix A).
The Program involves Global Agreement that encompasses Implementing Agreements and Enforcement Agreements. These agreements (defined in the Plan) will establish the habitat restoration and flow actions, rights, and obligations of various parties with respect to the Program.
The additional appendices to the Plan outline governance and science activities, highlight the ecological benefits of the flow and non-flow measures and describe the Program’s approach for accountability and transparency to regulatory agencies and the public. Parties to the agreements updated these documents following public review before the State Water Resources Control Board and 2023 and 2024 workshops.
The Draft Governance Program (Appendix B) describes the Program’s principles, entities, roles and responsibilities. The principles include transparency, inclusiveness and collaboration, accountability to outcomes, respecting rights, authorities and obligations, certainty and adaptability, efficiency, science-based decision making, and a consensus-seeking approach. The Governance document outlines the entities that will plan and make decisions related to many flow and non-flow measures systemwide measures, make recommendations regarding the deployment of tributary/Delta measures, conduct assessments, update the Plan, develop annual reports, facilitate implementation of a systemwide Science Program, and receive recommendations for science investment and adaptive management from the Science Committee.
The Science Plan (Appendix C) provides the framework and comprehensive approach for evaluating the outcomes of the flow and non-flow measures, with the ultimate aim of informing the State Water Board’s assessment of the Program. The Science Plan includes a set of hypotheses and associated monitoring for evaluating the outcomes of flow and non-flow measures and addresses several broad-scale ecosystem management questions. This document provides guidance to the Science Committee as it develops recommendations for science investments in the form of additional monitoring, active experiments, decision-support tools, and data analyses needed to fill knowledge gaps, assess the outcomes of the suite of measures, and inform ongoing and future decision making.
The Early Implementation Project List (Appendix D) details a non-exhaustive list of habitat restoration projects that may be credited under early implementation of the Program, pending testing and refinement of the non-flow measure accounting process, as described in the Plan.
Flow Measure Accounting (Appendix E) describes how participating water districts on particular tributaries will show that their flow measures provide real water. This appendix also includes an accounting methodology for how these flows will result in additional Delta outflow.
Non-Flow Measure Accounting (Appendix F) complements Section 3 of the Plan and outlines protocols for tracking the achievement of habitat projects, which expand salmonid spawning and rearing in-channel and on floodplains, as well as bypass floodplain and tidal wetland projects with multi-species benefits. This appendix includes accounting procedures for other non-flow measures such as weir improvements and fish passage, food production on agricultural land, and predator control activities. The appendix also includes a framework for comparing the non-flow measures to the Final Draft Scientific Basis Report Supplement that the State Water Board released in 2023 to document the science supporting the provisions included in the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program.
The Draft Funding Plan (Appendix G) describes the different revenues supporting the Program, what those revenues will support, and how funds will be collected, directed, and disbursed. Revenues from the Department of Water Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies, public water agencies, and bond and other state funding will contribute to the Program. These revenues will support the acquisition of water as well as science, monitoring, and habitat projects. The Funding Plan also contemplates a financial management entity that will have the ability to collect funding, track revenues and expenditures, compile information, generate reports, and adopt contracting principles while maintaining clear financial records. Finally, the Funding Plan includes detail on funding committed and spent to-date.
For more information about the State Water Resources Control Board effort to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, please visit this link. More information about the State Water Board’s consideration of the proposed voluntary agreements is available here. For information on how to comment on the Water Board’s staff report on potential updates to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, please visit this link.
