Blog: Water Deliveries Under the BDCP – Trying to Hold Steady in a Changing World
From the [Bay Delta Conservation Plan] BDCP Blog:
“At a public meeting on July 17 to discuss the draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan, UC Berkeley economist Dr. David Sunding said that the BDCP, if implemented, would allow the state to deliver more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta than otherwise, almost entirely in years of abundant rainfall.
“It’s also true, as state officials have said, that average annual Delta water deliveries under the BDCP could be about the same or less than they have been historically. Specifically, projections show a range of federal and state water project deliveries that are within 10 percent of the historical average deliveries of the last 20 years (5.3 million acre-feet).
“How could the BDCP allow the capture of more water in wet and average years but still not increase overall Delta water project deliveries in the future? The answer is that in dry years, when native fish species are most stressed, Delta diversions would slow under the BDCP. The plan is to use new intakes, shielded by effective fish screens, to move water at times of high flow and store it for dry times. That’s how water deliveries stay at roughly the same level into the future under the BDCP.”