FRESHWATER INFLOW AND WATER MANAGEMENT IN CALIFORNIA 



Gerald Johns 



California State Water Resources Control Board 

 Sacramento, California 



I would like to present a brief 

 example of how California has tried 

 to handle its water supply problems 

 and how it tried to merge techni- 

 cal, legal information, legal prin- 

 ciples and public interest in order 

 to develop enforceable water quality 

 standards to protect the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay-Delta system. What this 

 requires is adequate inflow to the 

 estuary in order to protect that 

 system. The delta represents about 

 half of the fishery in California 

 which either migrates through or 

 lives in the delta, specifically, 

 or in the bay area. In order to 

 give you an idea of what we are talk- 

 ing about here, I have a few slides 

 which show California and some of 

 its water supply projects. Most of 

 California's water supply falls in 

 the northern part of California a- 

 bove the delta. However, about two- 

 thirds of its population is below 

 the delta and, in addition, water 

 supplies to the San Joaquin Valley 

 are provided not only from the San 

 Joaquin River but also from the Sa- 

 cramento River. An engineer once 

 said that the problems in Califor- 

 nia are not water supply problems. 

 There is plenty of water in Califor- 

 nia. What exists is a water distri- 

 bution problem, because all the water 

 is in the north and all the uses are 

 in the south. So, one of the issues 

 then is that the delta sits basic- 

 ally at the hub or the center of 

 this water distribution problem. 

 When water supply and water distri- 

 bution questions are raised, you 

 always have the corollary issue 

 raised with protection of in-basin 



users and the instream uses. We 

 have the same problem in California 

 as in the other basins in the Nation 

 where their interests are all com- 

 peting for the same block of water. 

 We have in-basin users not only 

 within the San Joaquin Valley and 

 the upper Sacramento Valley that 

 use the water there for agriculture 

 and industrial supplies, but there 

 are users in the delta that need 

 water for salinity control, flow for 

 fish protection and also a large 

 exporting interest that takes water 

 out of the delta, down the Califor- 

 nia aqueduct into southern Califor- 

 nia, and through the Delta-Mendota 

 Canal into the San Joaquin River. 

 Each of these interests, of course, 

 questions the legimate needs of each 

 in terms of whether or not their 

 needs are legitimate. In order to 

 adopt enforceable standards, you 

 basically have to convince each 

 other--all these competing interests 

 --that each of their needs are legi- 

 timate. In other words, goals and 

 priorities for water development 

 and water distribution must be estab- 

 lished. 



Also you need to be able to 

 document technically how you are 

 going to achieve these goals. When 

 California recently adopted a Water 

 Rights Decision in 1978 and a water 

 control plan to address the issues 

 of protection for the delta, some- 

 body needs to do the balancing. 

 We have competing interests, and 

 somebody has to step in and do an 

 independent balancing act. That is 

 basically what the agency that I 



84 



