No go on our H2O: Bay-Delta Plan proceeds

We've known the Water Management plans of many agencies, including our own here in B'game, are fictional representations of hope over reality.  Even the perilously hopeful have to wake up now that a Sacramento County Superior Court judge waved the Bay-Delta Plan through on Friday.  As we wrote back in 2021 here, the key chart in B'game's Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) doesn't meet the sniff test for multiple, consecutive dry years.  There is no way years 4 and 5 in row of drought can have the same water available over the next 20 years.  Have a look again at both the right-hand columns and now the footnote

But wait, Batman.  What about with the Bay-Delta Plan?  The SF Comicle notes

The long-awaited decision on what’s known as the Bay-Delta Plan denies 116 claims in a dozen separate lawsuits that seek to undo a 2018 update to the policy, most of which are from water agencies saying the limits on their water draws go too far.  The 160-page verdict, released Friday by Sacramento County Judge Stephen Acquisto, specifically notes that arguments made by San Francisco against the regulation fell short.  (We get our water via SF).

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which manages water supplies for the city as well as about two dozen other communities, has maintained that tighter limits on water draws could force the agency to find new sources of water at a much higher cost to customers. The agency also has expressed concerns about not being able to maintain reliable supplies to support the Bay Area’s robust economy.

“As a public water provider to 2.7 million residents and thousands of businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area, we remain disappointed in the environmental review that informed the State Water Resources Control Board’s 2018 adoption of the Bay-Delta Plan amendments,” the statement read. “This 2018 decision could significantly impact our water supply with rationing of up to 50% in extended droughts.”

Appeals are expected, but a head-further-in-the-sand approach risks all sorts of painful moves that make prior rationing like this look modest.  You might think such signal events would form the basis for reigning in huge, dense growth in both commercial and industrial building, but you would be wrong.

Comments

[Joe]

Here's a letter to the Chronicle from yesterday that hits the proverbial nail on the proverbial head:

Conflicting goals

Regarding “California to impose first-ever permanent water restrictions on cities and towns” (Climate, SFChronicle.com, July 2): I read with some amusement and dismay about the state imposing tough, new water restrictions on cities and towns to prepare for a drier future.

Concurrent with these restrictions, the state is requiring cities and towns to build tens of thousands of new homes — all of which, of course, will require new water hookups.

Is it just me or do others see the contradiction here?

Edward Gazzano, Brisbane
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It's not just you, sir.