On Thursday, May 16th, the Delta Stewardship Council adopted the final Delta Plan and the proposed regulations for the implementation of the Delta Plan, and certified the final Programmatic Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Plan. The Delta Stewardship Council is an independent agency established under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act Of 2009 (Water Code, § 85000 et seq.). The Delta Stewardship Council is responsible for developing and adopting a Delta Plan that furthers the coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring and enhancing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (“Delta”) ecosystem. (Water Code, §§ 85054, 85300.) The Delta Plan must “include subgoals and strategies to assist in guiding state and local agency actions related to the Delta” and may also “identify specific actions that state or local agencies may take to implement the subgoals and strategies.” (Water Code, § 85300.)
The Delta Stewardship Council will now submit the package of proposed regulations and a Statement of Reason to the State Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”). If the OAL approves those documents they will be submitted to the California Secretary of State. If approved by that office, the proposed policies in the Delta Plan become enforceable regulations.
The final Delta Plan is available
here, the proposed implementing regulations are available
here, and the Programmatic Environmental Impact Report is available
here.
