The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is the primary state agency responsible for setting and enforcing water quality standards for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In 1995, the SWRCB approved a water quality control plan for the estuary. Now, the SWRCB is now preparing a water rights hearing in 1998 to apportion responsibility for meeting these quality standards among the hundreds of water rights holders in the Bay/Delta watershed.

The purpose of a water quality control plan is to provide for the reasonable protection of water for the needs of municipal, industrial, agricultural, fish and wildlife users. In May of 1995, the SWRCB adopted the water quality control plan developed as a result of the Bay-Delta Accord of December 1994. Subsequent to that adoption, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, acting under authority of the Clean Water Act, formally approved the plan.

The water quality control plan consists of a variety of actions designed primarily to control salinity (both from salt water intrusion from the Bay and agricultural drainage) and regulate water project operations. These actions protect the beneficial uses of the water for fish and wildlife, municipal and industrial use, and farm irrigation. The plan is developed in conjunction with local water quality control plans, which work to regulate discharges of toxics and other contaminants in the watershed. The water quality control plan is primarily implemented through the water rights process, which will soon be getting underway. A draft environmental impact report (EIR) was issued for the water rights proceeding in early December for public review and comment.

This 900-page document provides analysis of the significant environmental effects of the possible alternatives for implementing the water quality control plan. Where appropriate, the draft EIR identifies ways to avoid or reduce significant environmental impacts. Each alternative is analyzed separately and there is no preferred course of action.

An important htmlect of the draft EIR is the inclusion of alternatives that rely on modifying permits of those who hold water rights in the Central Valley as a way of distributing responsibility for achieving the water quality control plan's requirements. Currently, the primary responsibility for meeting Delta objectives lies with the State Water Project, operated by the state Department of Water Resources, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project.

A separate water rights hearing to consider these alternatives is scheduled to begin in March of 1998. This draft EIR, along with other evidence, will be evaluated by the SWRCB in preparing a water rights order to implement the plan. A final EIR and water rights decision should be completed by the end of 1998. "While the SWRCB water right effort is not a part of the CalFed long-term alternatives development process, it is an integral piece of the Bay-Delta solution that needs to be in place for the state to equitably address Bay-Delta issues into the future," a SWRCB spokesperson noted when the draft EIR was released.

In preparation for the water rights hearings, stakeholder interests have been meeting for more than two years to develop common plans for meeting the objectives. These plans will be submitted to the SWRCB for its consideration. Such cooperative efforts are a significant departure from past practice, where SWRCB hearings were often the forum for divisiveness among the various water users.

Negotiations have been ongoing among state and federal export water customers and San Joaquin River interests, and a number of programs have been developed to creatively meet environmental needs along that Delta tributary. They will be forwarded to the board for possible adoption.

In the Sacramento River valley, water users there have also been examining innovative ways to balance their needs for water with protection of the environmental values along this major river and its tributaries. Tentative agreement has been made with Yuba River water users, and other discussions continue.