The Water Board is currently poised to adopt the Voluntary Agreement (VA) Program for the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan despite the fact that the VA Program provides far too little water and habitat and is highly unlikely to deliver on its stated promises, according to the Water Board’s own record. How did we get to this point?
The short answer: Governor Newsom has had his thumb on the scale in favor of the VA Program from the very beginning of his first term. Communities with the most to lose from a bad deal–including Tribal, fishing, Delta, and environmental interests–were excluded from the process. And the agencies responsible for reviewing the contents of the VA Program were routinely hamstrung and manipulated.
The VA Program is the result of exclusionary and inequitable backroom deals
President Obama once observed, “Research has shown that diverse groups are more effective at problem solving than homogeneous groups, and policies that promote diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to draw from the broadest possible pool of talent, [and] solve our toughest challenges.” Sound public policy comes from a process that encourages public understanding and input, welcomes perspectives from the full diversity of communities with a stake in the outcomes, and relies on the best available scientific information. The Newsom Administration has ignored and abandoned these pillars of success. Instead, the VA Program was built on exclusion, homogeneity, and pre-ordained outcomes. It is no wonder it will not succeed.
In June 2018, the Water Board published a framework for completing the second phase of the Plan update. After Newsom became governor, this framework was put on ice while his team negotiated in secret with the state’s largest water districts. In 2022, negotiators emerged from their back room with a memorandum of understanding outlining an agreement to replace Water Board oversight with self-regulation and a commitment of resources far short of what the Water Board had previously identified as needed.
Photo of signatories to Voluntary Agreement Memorandum of Understanding, March 29, 2022. (Credit: California Natural Resources Agency)
In the years since, the Water Board has shifted further and further from its previously planned regulatory route, to a non-regulatory path that offers no promise of reasonable protection for fish, wildlife, or water quality – or the communities that depend on these public benefits – in San Francisco Bay’s watershed.
The Newsom Administration has repeatedly broken its promises regarding the VA Program. Although the deals had been reached without input from Tribes, the environmental community, fishing interests, or Delta communities, Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot has stated several times that the Water Board process to review the VA Program would be fair, transparent, and science-based.
The reality has been anything but. For example, in 2022, the Water Board signed a non-disclosure agreement with other state agencies regarding the scientific backing for the VA Program. The mere existence of an NDA regarding the scientific underpinnings of the Plan to manage California’s most precious and limited resource is the opposite of transparency and anathema to good decision-making – science is not done in secret.
The NDAs are in line with Newsom’s efforts to hide these backroom deals from public scrutiny. In both the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions, the Newsom Administration pushed hard for bills that would have exempted the Bay-Delta Plan updates from environmental review. Fortunately, this effort failed and the Water Board was forced to disclose the VA Program’s likely impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Manipulating the record
The CEQA review confirmed that the VA Program is wholly inadequate. However, even here, Newsom’s agencies hid the truth about just how inadequate the VA Program is. For example, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) staff wrote a critical technical review of the VA Program as described in a 2025 Draft Plan update from the Water Board. Before CDFW submitted its final comments to the Water Board, the comments produced by the agency’s technical experts were substantively rewritten during CDFW executive, California Natural Resources Agency, and/or Governor’s Office review to make CDFW’s comments VA-friendly. For example, CDFW staff wrote: “Based on the results of the various metrics analyzed in the [Water Board’s] Staff Report …the unimpaired flow alternatives result in greater ecological benefits for native Bay-Delta species as compared to the [VA Program] proposal.” The final comments replace the staff’s concern with the statement, “CDFW supports [the VA Program]…” Similarly, CDFW’s final submission to the Water Board omits the technical staff’s concern about “[n]ot having explicit language protecting VA flow base and proposed Plan amendments from being reduced by new water supply projects.” Furthermore, CDFW staff argued that the Water Board should compare modeled outcomes of the VA Program and other regulatory alternatives to illustrate likely performance differences; the final CDFW comments delete an entire appendix that provided these comparisons.
So, not only did the Newsom administration use a confidentiality agreement to hide science exchanged between state agencies, the administration muzzled its own experts when they tried to flag significant shortcomings of the VA Program.
Using VAs to block progress on much needed, science-based safeguards
Political interference has been a hallmark of the VA process. Eight years ago, the Water Board presented its final draft for the first phase of the Bay-Delta Plan update. Then, as now, Newsom advocated for a non-regulatory pathway. On election night in 2018, just before the Water Board was to adopt the first phase of the Bay-Delta Plan, then-Lieutenant Governor Newsom pressured the Water Board to postpone adoption of a decision in this first phase, to give state and water district negotiators even more time to reach voluntary agreements, despite failing to do so for the previous seven years. When the widely respected Board Chair at the time, Felicia Marcus, successfully led the Water Board to adopt new requirements for flows from the San Joaquin River to the Delta, the Board’s first substantive Plan update in 23 years, the new governor declined to reappoint her. And because the Newsom administration has yet to implement those 8-year old updates, fish and water quality of the southern Delta and the San Joaquin Basin continue to suffer under the previous, outdated and unprotective water quality regulations.
This is not an “experiment”
VA Program backers and the Water Board assert over and over again that the VA Program is an “experiment,” and that they will achieve positive results by relying on adaptive management, science, and inclusion going forward. But why should anyone expect that the Water Board will respond to new scientific information differently than it has responded to the abundant scientific information available today, all of which indicates that the VA Program is bound to fail? How can Californians trust that implementation of the VAs will be inclusive and equitable going forward, when their elected officials and agency leadership have worked so hard to obscure the truth about the VA Program and excluded or ignored those who are most affected by poor water quality in the San Francisco Bay estuary watershed? The truth is: we can’t.
The Water Board should reject the VA Program and move forward with science-based flow and water quality requirements that are responsive to the needs of all Californians, not just powerful water brokers.
In the final installment in this series, we’ll describe what it would take to adequately protect the Bay estuary, its watershed, and local communities, starting with getting the Water Quality Control Plan right, and including other actions the State of California can take, both to preserve this national treasure and to manage our water resources sustainably.
Gary Bobker is the Program Director for Friends of the River, a nonprofit organization which works to promote a climate-resilient future for California, with healthy rivers, equal access to clean water and outdoor recreation, and a thriving, sustainable economy.
Christie Ralston is an Associate Attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit organization that defends San Francisco Bay and its watershed from the biggest threats by holding polluters and government agencies accountable.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Maven’s Notebook.
More coverage of the Voluntary Agreements on Maven’s Notebook …
By Dan Walters, Cal Matters This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gray Davis became governor in 1999 and one of his first acts was to decree that there would be no major changes in water policy for eight years, which he assumed would be his two terms in office. Davis, a veteran politician who had climbed the political ladder one rung at a time, was well aware of the decades-long stalemate on the fundamental […]
Framework combines new flows, habitat restoration, science and enforceable rules to protect the Sacramento River and Delta From the State Water Board: In a landmark development driving large-scale ecosystem restoration and creating greater security for the heart of California’s water system, the State Water Resources Control Board today adopted modernized water quality protections for the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta. The updated Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (Bay-Delta Plan) strengthens protections for […]
California approved Newsom’s Delta water rules, but Trump threatens to pull out and $740M with it. Water agencies that once backed the deal call it too strict; environmentalists say it’s too weak. By Rachel Becker, Cal Matters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California water regulators have approved a new plan overhauling how farms and cities take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and rivers that feed it, setting up the next fight over Gov. […]
Under the changes, water agencies can commit to voluntary agreements governing water usage that some environmentalists and tribes argue undermine the health of the Bay-Delta system. By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service California’s water board late Thursday approved major changes to a massive water plan that drew strong emotions, and at times sharp rebukes, from hundreds of stakeholders including water agencies, conservationists and tribes. The plan sets water quality goals for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a massive watershed […]
Groups condemn the Newsom administration’s voluntary agreement framework, pledging to fight for water rights, environmental protections, and due process From Restore the Delta: In anticipation of the State Water Resources Control Board’s vote to adopt the updated Bay-Delta Plan, tribal leaders, environmental advocates, and Delta residents gathered at a press conference to condemn the decision and pledge further action to defend California’s water rights, protect critical ecosystems, and ensure meaningful public participation in decisions affecting the state’s water future. Representatives […]
The Bay-Delta is a watershed that provides drinking and municipal water to some 30 million people, along with irrigation water for 4 million acres. From the Courthouse News Service People and agencies facing the effects of proposed changes to a major California water plan spoke in waves Wednesday, making their cases to the state’s water board. The State Water Resources Control Board is proposing amendments to the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water quality control plan. The plan sets water […]
By Alex Rabidoux, Assistant General Manager, Solano County Water Agency For decades, California has debated how much water should flow through its rivers to help recover struggling salmon populations. But an equally important question deserves attention: What happens to that water once it enters the river and how much ecological benefit does it actually provide? Salmon evolved in rivers connected to expansive floodplains, wetlands and side channels. Seasonal flows created shallow, food-rich habitats where juvenile fish could feed, grow and […]
By the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition, consisting of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Restore the Delta. California has formally apologized to tribes for state-sanctioned atrocities and committed to improving relationships between the state and tribal governments. Our elected leaders have also passed numerous laws intended to advance environmental justice outcomes. Yet, when it comes to decisions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed, the Newsom administration has thrown tribes and environmental justice communities […]
From the Golden Gate Salmon Association Later this week, the State Water Resources Control Board is likely to adopt a final update to the Bay-Delta Plan. This plan is the state’s key document to protect the natural resources in the vast Bay-Delta estuary, as well as its Central Valley tributary rivers. This is the largest freshwater ecosystem in California and the largest estuary on the West Coast. Sacramento Valley salmon runs are the backbone of salmon fishing in California and […]
Healthy Rivers and Landscapes provides critical habitat for salmon while also ensuring our farms, cities and rural communities remain vibrant By Nicole Montna Van Vleck, President and CEO, Montna Farms Think about the last time you enjoyed a piece of sushi or took a bite of pizza. The rice wrapped around your favorite sushi roll, the tomato sauce, the cheese, perhaps a few peppers or olives sprinkled on top of that perfect slice. Chances are, you weren’t thinking about the […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Why Newsom’s Voluntary Agreements Won’t Work, Part 3: A Fundamentally Flawed Process
By Gary Bobker, the Program Director for Friends of the River, and Christie Ralston, an Associate Attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper
“A call for inclusion is not rude, it’s democracy.” – Gavin Newsom, Nov. 19, 2016
The Water Board is currently poised to adopt the Voluntary Agreement (VA) Program for the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan despite the fact that the VA Program provides far too little water and habitat and is highly unlikely to deliver on its stated promises, according to the Water Board’s own record. How did we get to this point?
The short answer: Governor Newsom has had his thumb on the scale in favor of the VA Program from the very beginning of his first term. Communities with the most to lose from a bad deal–including Tribal, fishing, Delta, and environmental interests–were excluded from the process. And the agencies responsible for reviewing the contents of the VA Program were routinely hamstrung and manipulated.
The VA Program is the result of exclusionary and inequitable backroom deals
President Obama once observed, “Research has shown that diverse groups are more effective at problem solving than homogeneous groups, and policies that promote diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to draw from the broadest possible pool of talent, [and] solve our toughest challenges.” Sound public policy comes from a process that encourages public understanding and input, welcomes perspectives from the full diversity of communities with a stake in the outcomes, and relies on the best available scientific information. The Newsom Administration has ignored and abandoned these pillars of success. Instead, the VA Program was built on exclusion, homogeneity, and pre-ordained outcomes. It is no wonder it will not succeed.
In June 2018, the Water Board published a framework for completing the second phase of the Plan update. After Newsom became governor, this framework was put on ice while his team negotiated in secret with the state’s largest water districts. In 2022, negotiators emerged from their back room with a memorandum of understanding outlining an agreement to replace Water Board oversight with self-regulation and a commitment of resources far short of what the Water Board had previously identified as needed.
In the years since, the Water Board has shifted further and further from its previously planned regulatory route, to a non-regulatory path that offers no promise of reasonable protection for fish, wildlife, or water quality – or the communities that depend on these public benefits – in San Francisco Bay’s watershed.
The Newsom Administration has repeatedly broken its promises regarding the VA Program. Although the deals had been reached without input from Tribes, the environmental community, fishing interests, or Delta communities, Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot has stated several times that the Water Board process to review the VA Program would be fair, transparent, and science-based.
The reality has been anything but. For example, in 2022, the Water Board signed a non-disclosure agreement with other state agencies regarding the scientific backing for the VA Program. The mere existence of an NDA regarding the scientific underpinnings of the Plan to manage California’s most precious and limited resource is the opposite of transparency and anathema to good decision-making – science is not done in secret.
The NDAs are in line with Newsom’s efforts to hide these backroom deals from public scrutiny. In both the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions, the Newsom Administration pushed hard for bills that would have exempted the Bay-Delta Plan updates from environmental review. Fortunately, this effort failed and the Water Board was forced to disclose the VA Program’s likely impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Manipulating the record
The CEQA review confirmed that the VA Program is wholly inadequate. However, even here, Newsom’s agencies hid the truth about just how inadequate the VA Program is. For example, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) staff wrote a critical technical review of the VA Program as described in a 2025 Draft Plan update from the Water Board. Before CDFW submitted its final comments to the Water Board, the comments produced by the agency’s technical experts were substantively rewritten during CDFW executive, California Natural Resources Agency, and/or Governor’s Office review to make CDFW’s comments VA-friendly. For example, CDFW staff wrote: “Based on the results of the various metrics analyzed in the [Water Board’s] Staff Report …the unimpaired flow alternatives result in greater ecological benefits for native Bay-Delta species as compared to the [VA Program] proposal.” The final comments replace the staff’s concern with the statement, “CDFW supports [the VA Program]…” Similarly, CDFW’s final submission to the Water Board omits the technical staff’s concern about “[n]ot having explicit language protecting VA flow base and proposed Plan amendments from being reduced by new water supply projects.” Furthermore, CDFW staff argued that the Water Board should compare modeled outcomes of the VA Program and other regulatory alternatives to illustrate likely performance differences; the final CDFW comments delete an entire appendix that provided these comparisons.
So, not only did the Newsom administration use a confidentiality agreement to hide science exchanged between state agencies, the administration muzzled its own experts when they tried to flag significant shortcomings of the VA Program.
Using VAs to block progress on much needed, science-based safeguards
Political interference has been a hallmark of the VA process. Eight years ago, the Water Board presented its final draft for the first phase of the Bay-Delta Plan update. Then, as now, Newsom advocated for a non-regulatory pathway. On election night in 2018, just before the Water Board was to adopt the first phase of the Bay-Delta Plan, then-Lieutenant Governor Newsom pressured the Water Board to postpone adoption of a decision in this first phase, to give state and water district negotiators even more time to reach voluntary agreements, despite failing to do so for the previous seven years. When the widely respected Board Chair at the time, Felicia Marcus, successfully led the Water Board to adopt new requirements for flows from the San Joaquin River to the Delta, the Board’s first substantive Plan update in 23 years, the new governor declined to reappoint her. And because the Newsom administration has yet to implement those 8-year old updates, fish and water quality of the southern Delta and the San Joaquin Basin continue to suffer under the previous, outdated and unprotective water quality regulations.
This is not an “experiment”
VA Program backers and the Water Board assert over and over again that the VA Program is an “experiment,” and that they will achieve positive results by relying on adaptive management, science, and inclusion going forward. But why should anyone expect that the Water Board will respond to new scientific information differently than it has responded to the abundant scientific information available today, all of which indicates that the VA Program is bound to fail? How can Californians trust that implementation of the VAs will be inclusive and equitable going forward, when their elected officials and agency leadership have worked so hard to obscure the truth about the VA Program and excluded or ignored those who are most affected by poor water quality in the San Francisco Bay estuary watershed? The truth is: we can’t.
The Water Board should reject the VA Program and move forward with science-based flow and water quality requirements that are responsive to the needs of all Californians, not just powerful water brokers.
In the final installment in this series, we’ll describe what it would take to adequately protect the Bay estuary, its watershed, and local communities, starting with getting the Water Quality Control Plan right, and including other actions the State of California can take, both to preserve this national treasure and to manage our water resources sustainably.
Gary Bobker is the Program Director for Friends of the River, a nonprofit organization which works to promote a climate-resilient future for California, with healthy rivers, equal access to clean water and outdoor recreation, and a thriving, sustainable economy.
Christie Ralston is an Associate Attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit organization that defends San Francisco Bay and its watershed from the biggest threats by holding polluters and government agencies accountable.
More coverage of the Voluntary Agreements on Maven’s Notebook …
DAN WALTERS: California adopted a new water plan. It’s unlikely to end the state’s water wars
By Dan Walters, Cal Matters This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gray Davis became governor in 1999 and one of his first acts was to decree that there would be no major changes in water policy for eight years, which he assumed would be his two terms in office. Davis, a veteran politician who had climbed the political ladder one rung at a time, was well aware of the decades-long stalemate on the fundamental […]
PRESS RELEASE: State Water Board adopts innovative new model to protect California’s Bay-Delta, water and wildlife
Framework combines new flows, habitat restoration, science and enforceable rules to protect the Sacramento River and Delta From the State Water Board: In a landmark development driving large-scale ecosystem restoration and creating greater security for the heart of California’s water system, the State Water Resources Control Board today adopted modernized water quality protections for the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta. The updated Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed (Bay-Delta Plan) strengthens protections for […]
CAL MATTERS: Has the Trump administration doomed Newsom’s water plan?
California approved Newsom’s Delta water rules, but Trump threatens to pull out and $740M with it. Water agencies that once backed the deal call it too strict; environmentalists say it’s too weak. By Rachel Becker, Cal Matters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California water regulators have approved a new plan overhauling how farms and cities take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and rivers that feed it, setting up the next fight over Gov. […]
COURTHOUSE NEWS: California water board passes major water plan after marathon session
Under the changes, water agencies can commit to voluntary agreements governing water usage that some environmentalists and tribes argue undermine the health of the Bay-Delta system. By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service California’s water board late Thursday approved major changes to a massive water plan that drew strong emotions, and at times sharp rebukes, from hundreds of stakeholders including water agencies, conservationists and tribes. The plan sets water quality goals for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a massive watershed […]
RESTORE THE DELTA: Tribes and environmental groups slam State Water Board’s anticipated adoption of updated Bay-Delta Plan, vow further action
Groups condemn the Newsom administration’s voluntary agreement framework, pledging to fight for water rights, environmental protections, and due process From Restore the Delta: In anticipation of the State Water Resources Control Board’s vote to adopt the updated Bay-Delta Plan, tribal leaders, environmental advocates, and Delta residents gathered at a press conference to condemn the decision and pledge further action to defend California’s water rights, protect critical ecosystems, and ensure meaningful public participation in decisions affecting the state’s water future. Representatives […]
COURTHOUSE NEWS: California water board hears competing views on major water plan update
The Bay-Delta is a watershed that provides drinking and municipal water to some 30 million people, along with irrigation water for 4 million acres. From the Courthouse News Service People and agencies facing the effects of proposed changes to a major California water plan spoke in waves Wednesday, making their cases to the state’s water board. The State Water Resources Control Board is proposing amendments to the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water quality control plan. The plan sets water […]
COMMENTARY: The science is clear: Restoring California’s salmon populations requires more than just water
By Alex Rabidoux, Assistant General Manager, Solano County Water Agency For decades, California has debated how much water should flow through its rivers to help recover struggling salmon populations. But an equally important question deserves attention: What happens to that water once it enters the river and how much ecological benefit does it actually provide? Salmon evolved in rivers connected to expansive floodplains, wetlands and side channels. Seasonal flows created shallow, food-rich habitats where juvenile fish could feed, grow and […]
COMMENTARY: Reject the discriminatory, illegitimate, and harmful Voluntary Agreements
By the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition, consisting of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Restore the Delta. California has formally apologized to tribes for state-sanctioned atrocities and committed to improving relationships between the state and tribal governments. Our elected leaders have also passed numerous laws intended to advance environmental justice outcomes. Yet, when it comes to decisions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed, the Newsom administration has thrown tribes and environmental justice communities […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Fatal flaws in the State Water Board’s Draft Bay-Delta Plan Update
From the Golden Gate Salmon Association Later this week, the State Water Resources Control Board is likely to adopt a final update to the Bay-Delta Plan. This plan is the state’s key document to protect the natural resources in the vast Bay-Delta estuary, as well as its Central Valley tributary rivers. This is the largest freshwater ecosystem in California and the largest estuary on the West Coast. Sacramento Valley salmon runs are the backbone of salmon fishing in California and […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Healthy Rivers and Landscapes: A healthier future for all of California
Healthy Rivers and Landscapes provides critical habitat for salmon while also ensuring our farms, cities and rural communities remain vibrant By Nicole Montna Van Vleck, President and CEO, Montna Farms Think about the last time you enjoyed a piece of sushi or took a bite of pizza. The rice wrapped around your favorite sushi roll, the tomato sauce, the cheese, perhaps a few peppers or olives sprinkled on top of that perfect slice. Chances are, you weren’t thinking about the […]
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