The Delta Stewardship Council is meeting to try to come up with policies and recommendations relative to the Delta Plan that will allow the process to move forward with the environmental review. Some council members and many stakeholders think the Delta Plan isn’t there yet, both in small, wordsmithing ways and in big, policy ways.
A tired-sounding Chair Isenberg, seeing the specter of a 7th Staff Draft, noted that they aren’t adopting a Delta Plan this week anyway, just moving the process along. They’re already seven months past the statutory deadline. There will be more opportunities for public comment in connection with the environmental impact report (EIR).
Isenberg also noted that all the areas that are controversial now were controversial two years ago.
Among issues that are still unresolved as we bring you this update (and we think it is safe to say they won’t be resolved this week):
- Language relative to reducing reliance on Delta water exports and improving regional self-reliance
- State policy on investments for Delta risk reduction projects, including levees (see comments above on DWR Director Cowin’s letter to Delta engineers)
- Boundaries of appropriate development locations, and a map revision indicating that Bethel Island is a legacy community
- Concerns of Delta municipalities that covered actions are not clearly defined and thus interfere with local self-governance
- A finance plan (there isn’t one)