Delta Stewardship Council Keys to Success – Flood Management and Credibility in the Delta

Last week, I attended the second meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council.  It’s remarkable that a meeting of this council, which took so much work to create and whose work has such profound implications for the State, could be so quiet – almost sleepy.  But the Council is in its start up phase, wrestling with less than glamorous issues like meeting schedules and the rules governing the disclosure of travel expenses. 

The work of the Council will be in the spotlight soon enough.  After all, most of the state has a great deal at stake in the Council’s efforts to restore the health of the ecosystem, address Delta stability issues and improve dysfunctional agency programs.  But during this brief period, the Council has a little breathing room to identify issues that will be central to their long-term success.  Those of us who worked so hard to create the Council, through the Delta Vision process and the legislature, should do the same.  In the coming week, I’ll suggest a few keys to success for the Council. 

The first such key is credibility and support in the Delta.  The legislation that created the Council was opposed by most interests in the Delta – quite vigorously.  This should be a critical consideration for the Council.  After all, the Council is writing a Delta plan.  No one has more at stake than the 400,000 residents of this region.  From a practical standpoint, support in the Delta is important for another reason.  Under California law, local governments and landowners have tremendous authority.  A collaborative approach with Delta interests can facilitate the implementation of a Delta Plan.  If, on the other hand, the Council does not build support in the Delta community, implementation of a Delta Plan may prove to be impossible, or take many years longer than planned.   I’ve written about this issue here.

Fortunately, in developing the Delta Plan, the Council has broad authority to address issues critical to the Delta community, including ecosystem and fishery restoration, agricultural land preservation, economic development, recreation and especially flood management.  This latter issue is particularly important.

Shockingly, despite the fact that the Delta faces greater flood risks than almost anywhere else in the nation, and despite the enormous potential consequences of a large scale flood in the Delta, California has no flood management plan for the Central Valley and the Delta.  As a result of SB 5, which was passed in 2007, the state is currently preparing a State Plan of Flood Control.  Delta communities will pay close attention to this plan.  They know how important it is to their future. 

But this plan is important for other reasons.   Whatever the Bay-Delta Conservation Planning process and the Council conclude is the right long-term solution to improve the reliability of Delta supplies, everyone agrees that the CVP and SWP will be dependent on Delta levees for many decades.   The simple truth is that the Delta projects cannot export from the Delta for much of the year without maintaining many of the islands in the Central and Western Delta.   Nothing is likely to change that for a long time.

In addition, significant habitat restoration is needed to restore the health of the Delta.  Species like the Valley’s four runs of Chinook salmon and the Sacramento splittail, which is currently the subject of a status review by the Fish and Wildlife Service, can benefit significantly from the restoration of flood plain habitat.   You can immediately see why it’s so important that the ecosystem restoration efforts in the BDCP and the state’s flood planning work in the Delta be integrated.

So there it is.  Flood management is central to reducing the risk of a Katrina-like event in the Delta.  It’s critical for Delta residents, as well as for those who rely on exported Delta water, for salmon fishermen and for the Delta ecosystem.   Thus, flood management is a key to developing a Delta plan with multiple winners and broad support.

The Council should focus on integrating the work of BDCP and the State Plan of Flood Control to take advantage of the synergies described above and to develop support for the Delta Plan within the Delta.  If, on the other hand, these plans move in different and incompatible directions….well, that’s the road to wasted money, conflict, lost time and gridlock.   We’ve been down that road.