Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Water exports from the southern Delta to users in the Bay Area and Southern California have become a central concern for the environmental health of the Delta, due to the dramatic decline of numerous fish species in recent years. This video discussion looks at two alternatives to those pumping operations, using the CALVIN model.

What is the best decision for managing water exports in the Delta? Jay Lund asks. This presentation looks at four strategies and how they may affect environmental sustainability and reliable water supply by mid-century to account for natural forces acting in the Delta, such as sea level rise.

Soil salinity has been a problem for agriculture in California's southern Central Valley for decades. Since the 1950s, the Delta has been a major source of surface water for the region, but salinity is once again becoming a major issue. Howitt provides preliminary estimates for long-term revenue losses for irrigated crops and confined animal operations in the Southern Central Valley as a result of salt accumulation.

Lund discusses recent policy and technical discussions that have begun to revisit the idea of building a peripheral canal to divert water from the Sacramento River upstream of the Delta and deliver it to the export pumps. A canal or other form of upstream diversion of water exports involves a wide range of important decisions including: infrastructure, operations, environmental, governance, finance, etc.

Ellen Hanak, of the Public Policy Institute of California, reviews several governance and regulatory challenges for the management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. She takes into account the changes occurring in this region as a result of sea level rise, increasing risk to levees, inevitable changes in the sustainability of beneficial uses due to sea level rise and additional permanent island flooding, and the challenges posed by declining populations of native fish species.