Update 2003 of the California Water Plan
A Strategic Plan for Sustaining California’s Water Resources
By Roger Canfield



Interest in the California Water Plan has steadily grown since the Bay-Delta Accord of December 15, 1994 and inception of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program in 1995. Also, in 2001, during the first dry water year since the Delta Accord and the drought in the Klamath basin, there was growing concern that California could experience a water crisis during the next drought cycle. Water managers, the public, and media expressed this concern and called for proactive planning by the State to assess and plan for California’s growing water needs while sustaining its water resources and economy.

Today, California’s State and federal legislators and water stakeholders are looking to Update 2003 as the strategic process and plan for identifying what the State’s additional future water needs could be after CALFED actions and the Colorado River 4.4 Plan are fully implemented. Consequently, the California Water Plan, is the strategic plan for managing and developing California’s water resources and continues to receive greater attention.
Update 2003 will consider multiple plausible futures for our water supplies and uses, a greater number of water management options than in prior plan updates, and the consequences of potential global climate change on our water resources and infrastructure. The Department of Water Resources is undertaking an historic new process to build consensus among an expanded group of stakeholders and to open up the process of preparing California’s Water Plan to the public as never before. The goal is to update the Water Plan by the end of 2003 in a way that meets Water Code requirements, has broad support among California’s water community, and is a useful document for the public, water planners, legislators and other decision-makers.

History in the Making
Perhaps the significance of the California Water Plan can best be illustrated by its predecessors that explored options such as the Central Valley Project in the 1930s, the Feather River Project, the San Luis drain, the Peripheral Canal, and most recently the protection and sustainability of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
 
The California Water Plan is a dynamic, “living document,” that DWR periodically updates in accordance with the Water Code (see the sidebar on Water Code provisions). The first Water Plan was published by DWR as Bulletin 3 in 1957. Since then, DWR has prepared seven Water Plan Updates, published as the Bulletin 160 series. The Water Code now requires DWR to update the California Water Plan every five years (Section 10004 (b) (1)). DWR published the last Update in 1998, and will publish the next one by the end of 2003, which will include forecasts for California’s water supplies and needs for the next 30 to 50 years.
 
A New Way of Water Planning
“DWR has fundamentally reformulated and expanded the process and content of the next Water Plan Update,” said DWR Director Thomas M. Hannigan in a recent presentation. To meet these increased demands and expectations, DWR initiated in Fall 2000 a new approach, scope, and process for preparing Update 2003 to:
 
• promote an open and collaborative stakeholder-based strategic planning process;
• assemble an expanded and more representative 65-person public Advisory Committee and 260-person Extended Review Forum;
• use outside facilitation services to foster a consensus-seeking process; and
• capitalize on eGovernment technology (email and the Internet) to provide online public access to Update 2003 assumptions and estimates, information, and water supply and use data.
 
Broad Representation
The Update 2003 Advisory Committee is comprised of an extraordinary array of interested groups and stakeholders. Working with such a large and diverse public Advisory Committee is a first for preparing the California Water Plan. The 65 Advisory Committee members represent a multitude of diverse views, broad range of water interests, and all regions of the State. In addition to water districts and urban and agricultural water contractors, it also has representatives from environmental groups, tribal interests, business and recreational groups, labor unions, and State, federal and local governments. “The next California Water Plan – and all future ones – must reflect the needs and interests of all Californians,” said DWR Deputy Director Jonas Minton.

Open Participation
The Committee is “the most broadly participatory effort in DWR history, representing our State’s climate and peoples,” said Minton. This revitalized process will hopefully help DWR identify previously underutilized water supplies and unmet needs. DWR maintains a Web site (www.WaterPlan.water.ca.gov) allowing just about anyone to partake in California’s water planning process. In addition to providing general information, the Web site shares work products with stakeholders and the public for review and comment.
 
This new process is an “open and transparent collaboration” among all stakeholders. For example, at an Advisory Committee meeting, Gregory Weber, the Senior Mediator from the California Center for Public Dispute Resolution, told members, “the purpose of the day is to share ideas and differing points of view. All ideas have value in this setting. We are looking for bold ideas. The goal is to achieve understanding. It is important that participants be able to speak freely.” In the interest of seeking consensus, the facilitation team is helping DWR and its stakeholders become better listeners to ensure that all constituencies and their range of perspectives are heard.

DWR has published the preliminary draft Assumptions & Estimates for Update 2003 online for full and continuous public access on the Update 2003 Web site. This online report is intended to meet requirements added to the Water Code by Senate Bill 1341 (Burton) and make transparent the framework, process, key features, assumptions, and data that DWR intends to use in preparing the next Water Plan Update. The release of these draft Assumptions & Estimates will promote early public feedback that DWR and the Advisory Committee will use to improve on the information underpinning Update 2003.
 
Elevating Expectations for Update 2003
“The expanded public process and heightened interest in the Water Plan have in turn generated greater expectations for DWR to collect additional data, conduct additional analyses, and utilize more sophisticated planning tools and models,” said Kamyar Guivetchi, Chief of DWR’s Statewide Planning Branch. The process is generating many recommendations, new workload, and changes to the form and content of Update 2003.
 
Stakeholders and recent legislation sponsored by State Senator Mike Machado want DWR to prepare and quantify regional as well as statewide Water Portfolios comprised of a broader range of environmental, urban, and agricultural water use and water supply categories for describing, “where we are now.” Each regional and statewide Portfolio will include nearly 100 categories; about four times the number presented in the last Water Plan Update. The Water Portfolios will better describe water supplies and water uses, help identify underutilized opportunities and unmet challenges, and will help understand the complexity of water management constraints, options and decision-making. DWR proposes to construct Water Portfolios using the best available data from water years 1998 (wet), 2000 (average), and 2001 (below normal / dry) to describe the current status of water supplies and uses. The Update seeks “credible and accurate estimates of water supplies and uses as the basis for considering options and strategies that are suited for future environmental, residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses,” said Guivetchi.
 
In light of the inherent uncertainty of what will happen in the future, stakeholders want, and recent legislation directs, DWR to consider and evaluate a greater number of plausible versions of the future and potential water management options (study plans). Working with Advisory Committee members and other interested parties, DWR is identifying “building blocks” for developing these study plans, comprised of about 40 key factors (i.e., drivers, constraints, and management options that are thought to affect future water supplies and uses), and their nearly 150 related ranges.
 
“We are asking stakeholders, DWR staff, and interested parties to assemble a number of study plans using different combinations of building blocks to describe where we are going and where we want to be,” said Guivetchi. DWR will then quantify and evaluate a reasonable range of the assembled study plans using available technical and modeling tools with direction from the Advisory Committee and as limited by available time and resources.
 
Update 2003 will explore many intensive water management strategies such as: urban and agricultural water use efficiency, water recycling, desalination, integrated management of surface and groundwater, water transfers, and water pricing, as well as additional conveyance, ground, and surface water storage facilities.
 
Global Climate Change
“The Water Plan should not only be able to encompass the historic State-federal compact known as CALFED, but it should also present options for future changes in weather patterns due to global warming,” said Deputy Director Minton. While it is “unprecedented and only the uncertainties are certain,” it is “prudent” and “reasonable” to consider the potential impacts of future climate change on our water resources and infrastructure. Guivetchi notes that climate change adds to “the utility of the historic hydrologic data we currently use to forecast water futures and projects.”
 
Guivetchi said there is “growing evidence and concern of global climate change impacts on California’s hydrology and water systems.” “And whatever the uncertainties,” Minton told the Advisory Committee, “it makes sense to identify no regrets recommendations for the future. There can be no quick answers, but we must begin the process of thinking about how climate change might affect California’s water future.” Minton called the process a “learning curve amidst uncertainty about what is happening and what actions to take.”
 
Contributions of the Advisory Committee
Already, the Advisory Committee has assisted DWR in anticipating future events shaping water resources in California; developing new ideas for the management of water; staying in touch with water planning activities of other agencies; and communicating with the public and interest groups.
 
To date, the Advisory Committee has made a number of noteworthy suggestions. It has suggested creating the “water portfolios” and helped craft the many Study Plan building blocks. The members also have recommended using actual data, to the extent possible, to prepare the portfolios for current conditions.
 
When completed in December 2003, Update 2003 will assess current water supplies and uses, and forecast a range of future water needs for wet, below normal, and dry year conditions. The Update will recommend strategies, methods, and alternatives for meeting these needs, and will identify performance measures to monitor the implementation of water management options. Finally, Update 2003 will include ways for effectively communicating the Water Plan’s findings and recommendations, including the additional data collection and analytical tools needed for improving future Water Plan Updates

The California Water Code contains the legislative findings for the California Water Plan in Sections 10004-10005. For instance, Section 10005(a) states:

“It is hereby declared that the people of the state have a primary interest in the orderly and
coordinated control, protection, conservation, development, and utilization of the water resources of the state … and that it is the policy of the state that the California Water Plan ... is accepted as the master plan which guides the orderly and coordinated control, protection, conservation, development, management and efficient utilization of the water resources of the state.”
 
The Water Code requires DWR to deal openly and fairly with all contending water interests, and to present clear choices about water resource management. At the same time, final decisions remain with local water interests. In Section 10005(b), the Water Code states that the California Water Plan:
 
“… does not constitute approval for the construction of specific projects or…for financial assistance… without further legislative action, nor shall (The California Water Plan) be construed as a prohibition of the development of the water resources of the state… .”
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For more information about California Department of Water Resources water activities write or phone the DWR Office of Water Education
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