River Lovers Turn Out to Oppose Voluntary Agreements
FOR makes case for strong new Bay-Delta standards
On January 28, 29, and 30, Californians turned out in large numbers to oppose the Newsom Administration’s backroom Voluntary Agreements (VAs) at the State Water Resources Control Board’s public hearings on the update of Bay-Delta water quality standards. These standards set requirements for flow, salinity and other conditions that are meant to protect the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and all its important values, such as habitat for migratory, resident, and rare species, tribal and cultural uses, and commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishing. Hundreds of individuals and organizations urged the Board to adopt the stronger new flow requirements it had considered previously to reverse the collapse of fish and wildlife populations in the estuary.
Friends of the River lead scientist Devon Pearse set the stage during a panel presentation with San Francisco Baykeeper on the first day. Dr Pearse told the Board that freshwater flow into and through the estuary is the master variable that creates spawning (breeding) and rearing habitat, cues migration, and supports the food web for salmon and other important fish species. He also explained how flow supports the food web, but that the VAs would barely increase freshwater flow. He called the VAs “a badly designed experiment” that proposes to substitute habitat instead of providing the needed flows, even though lack of habitat isn’t the limiting factor on fish populations.
FOR Program Director Gary Bobker walked the Board through its own history of setting a solid, science-based foundation for updating the Bay-Delta flow standards, but then delaying a decision for over a decade. He reminded Board members that the collapse of the Bay-Delta ecosystem was happening in real time, and that adopting the VAs instead of strong new flow requirements would delay real action for at least another eight years—which might be too late to prevent species extinction and loss of ecosystem services.
FOR’s action alerts and training sessions (both for FOR’s River Activist Network and with other organizations including Yosemite Rivers Alliance, Restore the Delta and the Sierra Club) helped turn out over 150 Californians, who made eloquent and often impassioned pleas to the Board to reject the VAs, and instead create regulations that actually protect the Bay-Delta ecosystem. In contrast, only about thirty speakers (mostly staff from water districts) supported them.
In addition to testifying at the hearings and helping organize turnout, FOR oversaw and co-authored the public interest community’s most comprehensive set of written comments on the Board’s proposed water quality standards. The comments explain in detail how the updated Bay-Delta Plan:
improperly substitutes narrative standards for numeric flow criteria (which reduces the “teeth” the regulations have),
provides illegal regulatory assurances for the VAs,
fails to analyze how either the VAs or the watered down regulatory backstop can possibly protect the public trust as required by law, and
violates the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to analyze other feasible options and potential impacts.
The Board is scheduled to make a final decision late in 2026.
Media coverage of the hearings:
Maven’s Notebook: State water officials are faced with a once-in-a-generation change to save California’s salmon
Maven’s Notebook: A hard look at the 3,000-page Bay-Delta Plan
LA Times: Heated debate over California water plan as environmentalists warn of ‘ecosystem collapse’
Daily KOS: Environmental advocates, Tribes, call for equitable alternatives to CA voluntary water agreements
