California Water Board Postpones Bay-Delta Water Quality Hearings After Newsom's Legislative Defeat

Tribal, rural and environmental organizations and fishermen urge Board to abandon Voluntary Agreements 

Sacramento, California — On Sept.15, the California State Water Resources Control Board cancelled workshop dates scheduled for Sept. 24 and 25 that were intended to allow public comment on the proposed update to the failed 30-year-old Bay-Delta Plan, according to a press release from Save California Salmon (SCS).  

This announcement came less than a week after Governor Newsom’s trailer bill that would exempt the plan from CEQA was defeated in the face of massive opposition in the California legislature. The announcement was also made at a time when the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in its worst ever environmental crisis. 

"We are not surprised to see the public comment notice rescinded. The latest version of the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan and related Voluntary Agreements are not grounded in reality and contradict what the science and law says should be required,” said Save California Salmon’s Science and Policy Director Efraim Lopez. “Without the CEQA exemptions in the trailer bill- which failed - this plan is indefensible.”

The group noted that “the Bay-Delta is the hub of California’s water system and the largest estuary on the West Coast. It supplies drinking water to nearly 27 million people, supports salmon runs on 5 major watersheds, and sustains Tribal, fishing, and farming communities. Bay Delta operations also impact the Klamath River through the diversion of the Trinity River, its largest tributary.”

“To protect California’s water resources, the State Water Board is supposed to regularly update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, but it hasn’t been updated in almost 30 years,” the group wrote. “When the state began the current update nearly a decade ago, scientists recommended much stronger river flows to protect salmon and water quality. Unfortunately, the current iteration of the proposed plan relies heavily on vague and unenforceable Voluntary Agreements (VAs) with large water users rather than the years of scientific studies and recommendations that the board had solicited.” 

"The board’s inaction on this update, and insistence on leaning on voluntary flow measures has led to terrible water quality conditions and a crisis for our salmon and fishermen,” explained Regina Chichizola from Save California Salmon. “Our hope is that the Board takes this time to retool the plan before presenting it to the public for comment.”

“The current proposed plan relies on assumptions that more water is available than exists in our rivers, and does not include regulatory actions or safeguards to protect our waters from excessive diversions. This would put the drinking water supply for over half of Californians at risk, harm rural and coastal businesses and negatively impact Salmon runs on nearly every major river in the state. The State Water Board has an opportunity here to rework their proposed plan to better serve California communities and resources,” stated Chichizola.

Save California Salmon has postponed their September 25th rally until a new hearing date is set but will use a scheduled zoom training on public comment and the Bay Delta plan to update the public and let them know about other opportunities to urge the state to protect California’s rivers. 

The public comment zoom training is scheduled for 6 pm today, Sept. 17. People can register at: tinyurl.com/PublicCommentZoomTraining or watch live on Save California’s Facebook page.   

The Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) also commented on postponement of the workshops by the Water Board in a press statement.

“Clearly, the Board was assuming that the legislature would pass Governor Newsom’s trailer bill, which would have waived the state law requirement for the Board to prepare an analysis under CEQA of the likely environmental impacts of the draft Bay-Delta Plan update,” said Barry Nelson, senior policy advisor for Golden State Salmon Association. “Those potential impacts are severe, given that the Board proposed to adopt the flawed Voluntary Agreements. And, also clearly, the State Board staff believes they need more time to comply with this legal requirement.”

Nelson said this is the second time the State Water Resources Control Board has rescheduled this hearing.

“Initially, they had scheduled one of the hearing dates for September 26, California’s Native American Day, which was not a good look given the unanimous opposition to the Voluntary Agreements from Central Valley Tribes involved in Bay-Delta issues. Additionally, those Tribes and their environmental justice partners have a pending civil rights petition against the State Water Resources Control Board,” Nelson explained.

“Given the ongoing collapse of Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon runs, listed Central Valley salmon runs, the California salmon fishing industry, other listed fish, and harmful algae blooms in the Delta, this is a spectacular and inexcusable example of the Newsom Administration fiddling while Rome burns,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association. “The State Water Board is the only state or federal agency with the legal responsibility and authority to protect Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon and the fishing industry. They continue to fail in meeting this responsibility.”

Since 2023, commercial salmon fishing in California has been shut down due to low adult salmon returns caused by what the group said was “irresponsible water management during the last drought. Excessive agricultural water diversions led to lethal river temperatures and disastrously low flows when baby salmon were trying to make it from their spawning beds to the ocean.”

Background: Bay-Delta is in its worst ever crisis:

Newsom’s proposed Delta Tunnel and voluntary agreements would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River spring and winter-run Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish species, according to independent scientists and fish advocates.

The Bay-Delta is now in its worst-ever ecological crisis, due to massive water exports to Big Ag oligarchs and Southern California water brokers, pollution and other factors.

The Delta smelt population has become functionally extinct in the wild. No Delta smelt have been found in the California Fish and Wildlife's Fall Midwater Trawl Survey in the Delta for the past seven years. Commercial fishing for salmon in California ocean waters has been closed for three years, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations.

The tunnel and voluntary agreements would take even more water out of the Sacramento River before it flows through the Delta, making the ecological crisis worse than it already is.   

The announcement can be found at:  https://waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/bay_delta_plan/docs/rescindednotice-baydeltaplanupdates-09-2025-en.pdf