Tuesday September 15, 2026
Pleasanton Weekly —
After years of debate over how much freshwater should be allowed to flow to the sea through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the State Water Resources Control Board has released a final draft of its regulatory plan.
The board is accepting public comments through this Friday (Sept. 18) before it considers adopting the draft Water Quality Control Plan on Oct. 28.
In the draft plan, water right holders can choose from two pathways to compliance. They can provide a minimum rate of water flow from Sacramento River tributaries, or they can voluntarily invest in habitat restoration projects with specific flow volumes in lieu of sustaining a minimum flow rate. Some stakeholders say that part of the plan hands regulatory authority over to the very groups the board is supposed to regulate.
The Delta, where water flows from the Sierra Nevada through San Francisco Bay, provides water for nearly 30 million Californians and 4 million acres of farmland. It spans more than 1,000 square miles. Streams and tributaries flow around cities and farms into lakes and wetlands that sustain some of the state’s most threatened and endangered wildlife. Those watery landscapes also help replenish groundwater storage.