State Regulatory Decisions (or Refusal to Make Decisions) Continue to Cost Critical Water Supplies in a Changing Climate

On February 9, 2026, Congressmen Costa, Gray, Valadao and Fong jointly sent a letter to Governor Newsom (read here) asking him to suspend a regulation in the Delta called the Port Chicago water quality standard because the triggering of this standard would require releases from the reservoirs and the loss of as much as 600,000 acre-feet of fresh water to the ocean. If you remember, in January the California drought map showed our state for the first time in a long time completely free of drought. This situation is a contributor to the triggering of the Port Chicago standard that was implemented by the State Water Resources Control board in 1999. The idea being that if there is lots of water in the system, then we can afford to freshen up the western Delta around Port Chicago and that will be good for fish. As the Congressmen pointed out in the letter, the Delta has significantly changed since 1999, and the weather has become even more variable. So, what looks like an above normal year in January can change, and sending water to the ocean early may mean losing water you may need later in the year. The Governor did not respond publicly, and the Port Chicago standard was not suspended, but nature intervened with an atmospheric river that passed through Northern California. It provided most of the freshwater outflow needed to meet the standard, limiting the loss to the water projects to about 50,000 acre-feet. So, I guess we celebrate that instead of a 600,000 acre-foot loss, it was "only" 50,000 acre-feet.

But unfortunately, that is not the only non-decision by the state that cost us water supply this month. One of the major ongoing regulations in the Delta is the Old and Middle River standard (OMR). This regulation limits the pumping at the Delta plants to a -5,000 cubic feet per second. It is designed to limit the impact of the pumping plants on water flow in the Delta. There is a provision in the regulations that allows that number to be increased to -6,250 under a "storm flex" condition. In early February, the federal Bureau of Reclamation proposed a “storm flex” operation that would have operated for 20 days from February 18 until March 9. This was declined by the State Department of Water Resources because they needed approval of the California Fish and Wildlife Department and CDFW would not give approval. Twenty days of pumping another 1,250 cfs would have provided another 50,000 acre-feet of water supply to the State Water Project.

So, now we find ourselves with a rapidly disappearing snowpack and a water shortage right round the corner. We squandered 100,000 acre-feet of water this past month that we are going to wish we had later this year. Despite some positive directional developments, we still keep running stop signs. There is still a lot of work to do to get our government to where they need to be.

Geoff Vanden Heuvel

Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs