Modernizing the system: California Water Fix operations (White paper #2)

The second in a series of three policy papers prepared for the consideration of Metropolitan’s Board of Directors in advance of planned summer meetings and decisions in fall 2017.

Modernizing and improving California’s water system are essential for the reliable delivery of water supplies to much of the state. About 30 percent of the water that flows out of taps in Southern California homes and businesses comes from Northern California watersheds and flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But the Delta’s declining ecosystem and 1,100 miles of levees are increasingly vulnerable to earthquakes, flooding, saltwater intrusion, climate change and further environmental degradation.

California WaterFix is the product of more than a decade of review, planning, rigorous scientific and environmental analysis in collaboration with fishery agencies and an unprecedented level of public comment. Extensive analysis and work has been performed by state and federal water agencies and fish and wildlife agencies to determine conveyance system improvements and an operations framework to improve the direction of river flows in ways that will help native fish species, protect water supplies from climate change impacts and help restore the Delta ecosystem. Details of the proposed operations are addressed in Metropolitan’s second white paper and summarized below.