California Water Plan Update 2018 January 9, 2018

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Water Plan Update 2018 Draft Reviewer’s Guide

January 9, 2018

This document is presented as a preliminary draft of a chapter of the California Water Plan Update 2018

document. Supporting information, details, data, and full references will also be documented and

available, but will not be contained in this document. Comments received on this draft by January 15,

2018, may be used to inform the February 2018 Public Review Draft of Update 2018.

How to Comment

Send comments to: cwpcom@water.ca.gov

Attn: Paul Massera

Fax: 916-651-9289

What to Review

The Publications staff has not yet fully edited content for grammar, punctuation, style, consistency,

accuracy, or other issues relating to readability or quality. The document will be edited for these issues

prior to the release of the Public Review Draft in February 2018. Recommendations for what to focus on

during this meeting are listed below.

Please focus on:

• Relevance and Effectiveness: Does the content speak to your constituents/members? Is the

information presented in a way that is useful to elected officials?

• Completeness of information: As a policy decision-support document, is all information present

that an average reader might need — and presented appropriately (Considering that all

supporting information not contained in the main document will be available along with the

publication)?

• Factual accuracy: Is anything in the text incorrect? Does any information need additional

attribution to a specific source?

• Logical consistency: Does the narrative build in a logical way and effectively tell the right story?

Please do not focus on:

• Grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or stylistic consistency (unless any of these

relates to clarity or factual accuracy).

• Margins, fonts, layout, spacing, etc. Formatting will be reviewed again during the copy-editing

phase after your comments have been incorporated.

• Clutter/wordiness/efficiency of text.

• Tone/voice consistency

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Chapter 2. Sustainability Outlook

Managing water for sustainability is critical to dynamically balancing four societal values — public health

and safety, healthy economy, ecosystem vitality, and enriching experiences. It is about being mindful of

not wasting water, and as complex as predicting and planning for the next drought or flood. On a daily

basis, every Californian is responsible for doing their part. But how can Californians know how well they

are doing, whether their actions are moving the state in the right direction?

One basic long-standing challenge to water resource resilience and reliability in California is the lack of a

consistent and practical method for assessing current and future sustainability. Productive conversations

and planning for sustainability require a mutual understanding of resource limitations, management

deficiencies, and shared intent in identifying policy priorities.

California Water Plan Update 2018 (Update 2018) presents a major improvement in the way water

policy and management priorities can be developed and coordinated at local, regional, and State levels.

The Sustainability Outlook, described in this chapter, provides a well-organized and consistent approach.

When applied at a watershed scale, the Sustainability Outlook can increase the effectiveness of State

water policies and investments. This chapter underscores the urgency and rationale for “Actions for

Sustainability” (Chapter 3), as well as the importance of follow-through by those who would implement

those actions, as identified in “Implementation Plan and Funding Options” (Chapter 5).

Update 2018 advocates that managing for sustainability needs to be rooted in those things Californians

value. Through the lens of the four societal values, the Sustainability Outlook will help identify desired

water management outcomes and indicators that can be used to gauge current status and progress

toward sustainability. Because sustainability is not something achieved once and forever, the

Sustainability Outlook will help water resource managers adapt to changing circumstances and lessons

learned. Early implementation of the Sustainability Outlook means looking back at recommended

actions in California Water Plan Update 2013 (Update 2013) to assess what has been accomplished and

make the adjustments necessary to move toward a sustainable future.

Water Management in California Today California has always been a land of extreme diversity and variability. Today, a changing climate,

changing societal values and priorities, and many geophysical and socio-economic factors are

exacerbating that variability and heightening uncertainty. Effective integrated water management

(IWM) planning and implementation can reduce variability and uncertainty pertaining to water supply,

ecosystems, and public safety. This section provides a description of the geophysical and water use

conditions that affect water resource management and IWM planning.

Mandated State Responsibilities

State government water policy and responsibilities have evolved as decision-makers gained a more holistic understanding of water, ecosystems, and the impacts of past actions (and inaction) on those resources. The State’s roles and responsibilities are outlined in the State Constitution and case law; codified in statutes, such as the California Water Code; specified through regulations and contractual obligations, such as State Water Project contracts; and

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articulated through other types of policies, proclamations, and mandates. To begin building a complete and common understanding of the culmination of current State responsibilities, Update 2018 includes an inventory of all existing State government water-related obligations and mandates. Table 2-1 summarizes these responsibilities and their estimated cost ranges.

The inventory illustrates the framework under which State government currently supports statewide water resources sustainability. It will be used to help identify opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency. For example, various mandates have required the State to implement an overly limited scope of solutions or to rigidly enforce statutes rather than focus on achieving desirable outcomes. Update 2018 promotes a more holistic and flexible, as well as long-term, approach to State water policy and investment. State mandates must be reviewed, aligned, and adjusted to effectively adapt to a dynamic water resource environment. This inventory provides basic data, and through the Sustainability Outlook, provides a method for articulating the need to update or remove State mandates. A recommendation to evaluate the necessity and efficacy of existing mandates is presented in Chapter 3.

[Table 2-1. Insert inventory of existing statutory, contractual, constitutional and other mandated State government responsibilities and a range of costs.]

California Water Resource Conditions and Infrastructure

Precipitation, specifically snowpack and snowmelt from the High Sierra, is the primary source of water

supply in California, though it varies from place to place, season to season, year to year. The timing,

quantity, and location of precipitation in California are largely misaligned with agricultural and urban

water uses. Efforts to align the timing, quantity, and location with those uses have contributed to

California’s growth and unintended ecosystem degradation. In any given year, the state can experience

extreme hydrologic events: In times of drought there is not enough water to meet all uses, and during

floods the excess of water threatens human lives, property, and economic well-being. In both cases, the

crafting of effective policy and regulations has required regular updates of place-specific information

and tradeoff analyses, as well as adaptive decision-making.

The 20th century was marked by the development of infrastructure, institutions, and regulations to

manage the disparities between precipitation in the winter and lack of precipitation in the summer, as

well as the geographic disparity between water availability and water demands. State, federal, and local

agencies vastly expanded the state's system of reservoirs, canals, pumps, and pipelines to capture and

move water when it was available, store it for when it was not, and deliver it to agricultural and urban

users. Significant investments were also made in the state's flood protection system, including levees

and bypasses. Because of these infrastructure improvements, California’s water systems have

increasingly served multiple purposes, and today they provide an array of benefits to the state and its

people. Yet, in many cases, the improvements resulted in unintended consequences to the natural

environment.

Water Supply Reliability. The state relies on its watersheds and groundwater basins to provide clean

and sufficient water supplies. Healthy surface water and groundwater are essential to public health and

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safety, California’s ecosystems and economic future, and enriching experiences. Surface water and

groundwater have largely been managed as separate resources when they are, in fact, a highly

interdependent system of watersheds and groundwater basins. This historical separation in managing

these resources has resulted in negative effects across the four societal values and missed opportunities

to progress toward sustainability.

There have been significant investments made in local water-supply projects, including water recycling

and desalination. Recycled water and desalination, which were once cost prohibitive, are now becoming

more viable sources. Consistent with integrated regional water management planning principles and the

Governor Brown’s California Water Action Plan, local projects have helped increase regional self-reliance

and resiliency. That said, hundreds of thousands of Californians living in disadvantaged communities still

do not have secure or clean water for their households.

The statewide water balance (Figure 2-1) demonstrates the state’s variable water use and water supply

in the face of annual hydrologic extremes. Water uses depict how applied water was used by urban and

agricultural sectors and dedicated to the environment. Water supplies depict where the water came

from each year to meet those uses.

[Figure 2-1. California Water Balance by Water Year, 2005–2015]

Environment and Ecosystems. In addition to managing water resources for domestic, industrial, and

agricultural uses, California’s water is also managed for the needs of the environment and its

ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems and watersheds provide benefits to the people of California, such as

better air quality, enriching recreational opportunities, flood attenuation, groundwater recharge, and

natural water filtration. Although a significant amount of water is needed to maintain and restore

aquatic and riparian ecosystems, the current required flows for ecosystem needs are sometimes

insufficient to prevent negative impacts on the environment. Studies of the streamflow requirements of

aquatic life, mainly represented by salmon, reveal that flows in many California rivers and streams too

often fall below minimum desirable levels (California Department of Water Resources 2013).

Fish species in California’s waterways have generally declined over time in response to changing habitat

and flows, as well as from planned and accidental introductions of non-native species. As an example, of

the more than 50 species of fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) today, more than half,

including the most successful, are non-native (Delta Stewardship Council 2013). Climate change will

exacerbate these issues in the long term, and native species may be disproportionately affected (Moyle

et al. 2012).

Flooding. California is at risk for catastrophic flooding that has wide-ranging impacts because of the size

of its economy and the number of people residing in flood-prone areas of the state. Flooding occurs in

all regions of the state, in different forms and at different times. Every county in California has been

declared a federal disaster area for a flooding event at least once in the last 20 years. On the other hand,

flooding in California can produce beneficial effects and support natural functions (e.g., replenishing

ecosystems with sediment and nutrients, and helping to recharge groundwater aquifers). Flooding and

floodplains also can provide beneficial habitat conditions; however, as people and structures have

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moved into floodplains, the need for flood management for all beneficial uses — people and the

environment — has increased greatly.

Water Quality. Changes in land and water use have resulted in increased runoff of agricultural,

industrial, and urban pollutants to surface water and groundwater. Increased agricultural and urban

wastewater discharges, as well as changes in commercial and recreational activities, have negatively

affected water quality. Higher temperatures, increasing rainfall, wildfire and forest management

practices, and ecosystem degradation have further diminished water quality. As water quality

diminishes, the cost of treating it to drinking water standards increases.

Water and People. Federal agencies manage approximately 47 percent of California’s 100 million-plus

acres. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is the largest public land manager in the state.

Federal- and State-owned lands, combined with other areas, such as the Delta and coastal lands, offer

numerous opportunities for water-related recreational activities (e.g., camping, boating, fishing, hiking,

birding, hunting). In addition, all California Native American Tribes and Tribal communities, have distinct

cultural and spiritual practices, as well as environmental, economic, and public health interests, related

to water.

Historical Investment in Water Management

The average total historical investment in capital and ongoing expenditures by local, State, and federal

agencies have been approximately $30 billion per year from 2005 through 2015 (Figure 2-2). Capital

expenditures averaged approximately $5 billion per year during the same period, with the majority of

funds coming from local agencies. Capital expenditures have continued to be largely in reaction to

emergencies and extreme events (the increase in spending in the late 2000s for flood management was

in response to Hurricane Katrina, and the upward trend in spending starting in the mid-2010s was in

response to extended drought conditions). Most annual expenditures have been for ongoing needs and

have risen steadily since 2005, driven by an increase in administrative costs at the local agency level.

State and federal spending has remained low.

Local agencies provide about 85 percent of all funding for water management in California, with capital

and ongoing expenditures increasing to keep pace with the issuance of State grant programs. Although

the State has funded capital improvements in disadvantaged communities, those areas often lack the

ability to fund ongoing operations and maintenance. In addition, State expenditures from the General

Fund have decreased as bond issuance has increased. This shift has led to a reliance on bond funding for

water management, an unstable source that is subject to the public’s perceptions and priorities.

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(a) Total Expenditures

(b) Capital Expenditures

(c) Ongoing Expenditures

Figure 2-X2. Historical Local, State, and Federal Expenditures (2005–2015)

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California State Water Management Plans and Initiatives

California’s arid climate and history of drought and flood have prompted a variety of programs, actions,

and initiatives aimed at achieving greater water sustainability statewide. At the State level, a variety of

planning efforts, funding programs, regulatory reforms, and policy directives are helping to address key

water resource management concerns. Descriptions of these plans and initiatives are included in

Appendix <add #>.

Challenges to Sustainability

California has realized many successes in water resource management over the past several decades,

driven by State-level policy initiatives and programs, and local and regional actions. Nonetheless, strong

evidence of vulnerability of the state’s water resources is occurring in nearly all regions, and conflicts

between ecological and human needs are increasing. Climate change, demographic changes, and other

variables have underscored the need to improve the effectiveness of managing these valuable water

resources for sustainability. Just as important as understanding the challenges the state faces today, is

recognizing trends and the underlying causes of change. Doing so will allow all Californians to more

effectively collaborate on increasing resilience and recovering from unforeseen, disruptive events.

During the previous five years, California experienced severe drought accompanied by accelerated

groundwater depletion and overdraft; continued habitat and species declines; and economic hardship,

particularly in communities that rely on imported water supplies. This dry period was then followed by

the wettest year on record, with extreme hydrology causing catastrophic failure of some major

infrastructure. Those failures threatened the lives and property of people living behind levees, and

jeopardized Tribal cultural resources in many areas. Although some communities throughout California

showed great resilience under these adverse conditions, many communities were significantly affected

by these extreme hydrologic events. Communities without reserves of wealth often suffered the most

severe impacts.

California’s interconnected systems for using and managing water are extremely complex and subject to

continually changing natural and human-made conditions. Even with important statewide initiatives and

significant improvements in water resource systems and in system management over the past few

decades, California still faces unacceptable risks from both foreseeable and unanticipated threats to

water resource sustainability. Because our water resource system is complex, the dilemma of making

further improvements to support long-term sustainable management is complicated by several critical

gaps and urgent challenges.

Many challenges that regions and communities face are either foundational or more specific, even

critical. Whether foundational or critical, the challenges (described below) are interlinked: The critical

challenges cannot be adequately addressed unless stakeholders, water managers, legislators, and the

public address the foundational ones. While local, regional, and State water managers tackle these

challenges daily, they have varying degrees of control over them. What’s more, communities and

regions cannot efficiently or cost-effectively address these challenges on their own. The State must

empower community and regional entities to resolve these issues in a coordinated, collaborative, and

cost-effective way, such that the solutions provide broad public benefits.

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Foundational Challenges

• Initiatives and Governance: The ability to efficiently and sustainably manage water resources at

a watershed scale is often impaired by lack of coordination and of alignment of water and land

management efforts among local, regional, State, and federal agencies and California Tribes.

Those efforts are sometimes inconsistent with current priorities related to dynamically

balancing societal values. Those striving to implement projects must navigate and comply with

California’s labyrinth of uncoordinated and at times conflicting laws, regulations, and

jurisdictions — all of which can lead to project delays and increased planning and compliance

costs. This is true for both small, relatively simple projects and large, statewide projects.

Efforts to effectively manage California natural resources will require unprecedented alignment

and cooperation among public agencies, Tribal entities, landowners, interest-based groups, and

other stakeholders. Better agency alignment of plans, policies, and regulations is needed to

improve and expedite implementation. Collaboration is required to prioritize actions and garner

enough community support for sustained investment.

• Regulatory Framework: Regulations are an integral and important part of water management.

The current regulatory framework does not readily allow for the reconciliation of both

environmental needs and human activities. It does not take a systems-oriented approach, and is

not directly tied to or informed by ongoing planning and implementation efforts.

A changing regulatory environment, combined with misaligned, complex, and often internally

inconsistent government planning and policies, poses challenges for sustainably managing water

resources and associated project development. This is further exacerbated by conflicting roles

and responsibilities and often overlapping or narrow State authorities and governance

structures. California’s diverse societal needs, priorities, and expectations — which evolve and

sometimes conflict with one another — pose another challenge to establishing consistent State

policy and directing funding where it is needed most.

• Capacity for Data-Driven Decision-Making: Water resource planners and managers often do not

have access to adequate technical information, tools, and facilitation services to support

regional efforts toward sustainable, integrated water management. Although this is a challenge

statewide, the consequences are evident in under-represented and economically disadvantaged

communities. For any given resource issue, data may be abundant statewide but are often

collected, used, and stored by the individual agencies and not coordinated or shared.

Data management, planning, policy-making, and regulation must occur in a collaborative,

regionally based manner. The ultimate product needs to be a composite of information and data

from a wide variety of elected officials, opinion leaders, stakeholders, scientists, and subject

experts. Sound outcomes rely on a blend of subject expertise and perspectives woven together

(e.g., hydrology, climatology, engineering, earth sciences) into comprehensive policies and

implementation decisions that are place-based and regionally appropriate.

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• Infrastructure: Water- and flood-related infrastructure is increasingly not operated, maintained,

rehabilitated, or modernized to provide the intended outcomes.

Much of California’s water infrastructure is reaching the end of its design life. At the same time,

costly maintenance and capital improvements have been deferred in some regions because of

lack of funding or difficulty in meeting regulatory requirements. Combined with expected

changes in the state’s climate, supply disruptions caused by earthquakes and flooding are likely

to rise. This poses threats to public safety in terms of reduced water availability, degraded water

quality, and flooding.

• Funding: Current methods used to fund State government are often inadequate and too

unpredictable or inflexible to effectively fund all mandated State responsibilities (including local

assistance and cost-sharing). Many other factors, such as changing public priorities, responses to

declining ecosystems and catastrophic events, and deferred maintenance, have compounded

today’s State funding needs. Other challenges to sufficient and stable funding that occur at all

levels of government include competition for available resources with other public services,

dependence on per unit charges that reduces revenue collection during periods of required

conservation, legal constraints related to assessment increases (e.g., Proposition 218), and

geographical or jurisdictional limitations on use of funds.

Flood management and ecosystem management face additional funding challenges because

they rely heavily on State and federal funding. The State is also responsible for protecting public

trust assets and ensuring that communities with limited resources have safe, reliable, and clear

water supplies. Funding for these State responsibilities is also frequently inadequate and

unstable. For example, only 6 percent of total water resource funding is allocated to flood

management and ecosystem functions (Public Policy Institute of California 2012). Sporadic

funding that ebbs and flows with the occurrence of floods or droughts lacks the predictability

and reliability required for effective long-term change. At the same time, levels of general

obligation bond debt are near an all-time high.

Critical Challenges

• More extreme hydrologic events in the future: Severe drought conditions in the western

United States, followed by extreme precipitation in 2017, have directly affected the health, well-

being, and livelihoods of Californians. The wide swings in climatic conditions are exposing the

vulnerability of the state’s water systems and ecosystems. Seasonal, year-to-year, and

geographical variability among water sources and locations of water uses, particularly in

disadvantaged communities, is also a complicating factor.

• Reduced access to clean, safe, and affordable water supplies: During the recent drought, many

vulnerable communities were unable to provide stable, safe water supplies to their residents for

household use. Nearly 700 communities have water systems that, prior to any treatment, rely

on contaminated groundwater (State Water Resources Control Board 2013). Of the 3,399 public

water systems (community systems and schools) in the state, more than 300 of those water

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systems are not in compliance with safe drinking water standards (State Water Resources

Control Board 2016), and many more lack access to affordable and reliable water supplies. This

often results from degraded surface water and groundwater quality. For example, the rise of

homelessness has led to homeless encampments along riverbanks and stormwater

management systems in many towns and cities, which has created additional challenges in

protecting river ecosystems and riverine water quality. To compound the situation, many

disadvantaged communities must dedicate an increased portion of their budgets to providing

human services, rather than to redevelopment of water infrastructure.

• Increasing demands for water: Future water-use scenarios published in Update 2013 show an

increase in urban water use ranging from 1 to 7 million acre-feet (af) by the year 2050

(depending on population growth.) The high end of this range is equivalent to twice the storage

capacity of Lake Oroville. Agricultural water-use scenarios show a decrease ranging from 2

million to 6 million af for the same planning horizon. California’s population is expected to

increase from 39.4 million in 2016 to 51.1 million by 2060 (California Department of Finance

2016). Many communities are at risk of having their residential supplies disrupted or

compromised in the future. This growth is likely to put more people at risk of flooding, while

also increasing demands for water. Improving conservation and water use efficiency, along with

shifts in agriculture to permanent crops, will make it more difficult to reduce consumption

during droughts and periods of low supply (i.e., demand hardening).

• Declining groundwater levels: Groundwater comprises nearly 40 percent of all water used in

California, totaling more than 16 million acre-feet per year (af/yr.). This is 2 million af more per

year than what is estimated to naturally recharge (i.e., groundwater overdraft). According to

California’s Groundwater Update 2013, net withdraws from Central Valley aquifers between

2005 and 2010 were as much as 13 million af. This is equivalent to nearly four times Lake

Oroville’s storage capacity. Driven by recent and extended drought, groundwater supplies in

some parts of the state are declining at even greater rates. The resulting decline in groundwater

levels has led to ground surface subsidence in some areas, resulting in costly damage to water

supply, transportation, and flood infrastructure. Even considering the recently implemented

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), it will take significant investment and time

to reverse historical groundwater lows and achieve more sustainable use of this critical

resource. SGMA requires the development of groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high-

and medium-priority groundwater basins, which are prioritized by the percentage of total state

groundwater use and the percentage of overlying population in each basin. There are currently

43 basins classified as a high priority and 84 basins classified as a medium priority. Out of the

531 existing groundwater basins, these 127 basins combined account for approximately 93

percent of all groundwater used and support an overlying population that is approximately 88

percent of the total population in the state (see Figure 2-X).

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• Declining ecological conditions: Even with the recent focus on the connection between water

and ecosystem health, much habitat remains disconnected from water supplies. Native species

continue to decline and many are vulnerable to climate change. More than 150 individual

species are listed as threatened or endangered in California (California Natural Diversity

Database 2017).

• Unstable regional economies: As water supplies have become less reliable, local and regional

economies are more volatile, especially in agricultural and rural communities. For example,

direct agricultural costs statewide from the drought total more than $1.8 billion, with a loss of

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approximately 10,100 seasonal jobs (Howitt et al. 2015). Often these economic downturns

disproportionately harm people who have the least capacity to respond to changes.

These issues place significant risks on public safety, unique ecosystems, and the state’s economy.

Everyone in California is affected to some degree by these issues, and careful consideration of the risks

they pose is an important aspect of managing water resources for sustainability. Progress continues at

both the State and local levels, but these concerns are urgent and more needs to be done. In Chapter 3,

“Actions for Sustainability,” a number of strategies and actions, intended to address the significant

challenges described above, are organized into five categories (priority actions) and described.

Evaluating Water Resources Sustainability The Sustainability Outlook is a method of collecting, organizing, and standardizing data to evaluate the

status and trends of water resource conditions in terms of the four societal values.

The Sustainability Outlook will enable Californians to:

• Arrive at shared understanding of the statewide and regional water challenges and management

needs.

• Identify desired outcomes and indicators that can be used to gauge current status and progress

toward sustainability.

• Apply a single comprehensive and practical method for tracking and reporting on the

effectiveness of actions (e.g., investments, regulations, policies, projects) to achieve desired

outcomes.

The Sustainability Outlook is intended to present a snapshot of actual water and related resource

outcomes (where California stands today). Information in the Sustainability Outlook can be used by

individual Californians and water management decision-makers alike to foster greater understanding of

how we manage our water resources and better inform our individual and societal actions.

Sustainability Outlook: The Four Societal Values

Using the Sustainability Outlook, Californians can effectively support sustainability of water resources in

a coordinated, integrated way and achieve desired outcomes aligned with the four societal values.

Integral to the Sustainability Outlook is the underpinning principle of Social and Environmental Equity.

With this in mind, sustainable resource use and the resulting advancement of the societal values toward

sustainability must be well-thought-out, planned, and implemented in a way that provides for the basic

needs of all Californians and the environment. Each outcome, for each societal value, was heavily vetted

across multiple entities and stakeholders. This vetting was done to help ensure that, by achieving the

desired outcomes, the basic needs related to water resources will be met for all Californians and the

environment. Appendix <add #> provides more background on the importance of each societal value

listed below.

• Public Health and Safety.

o An adequate water supply for domestic needs, sanitation, and fire suppression.

o Reduced number of people exposed to waterborne health threats, such as contaminants or

infectious agents.

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o Reduced loss of life, injuries, and health risks resulting from extreme hydrologic conditions,

catastrophic events, and/or system failures (including infrastructure).

• Healthy Economy.

o Reliable water supplies of suitable quality for a variety of productive uses, and productive

water uses are based on a reliable supply.

o Considerations of economic risks and rewards on floodplains, rivers, and coastal areas.

o More economic benefits from productive water uses.

o Reduced likelihood or occurrence of significant social disruption following a disaster.

• Ecosystem Vitality.

o Preserved or enhanced biodiversity throughout the state.

o Resilient and sustained high-quality natural resources and habitats.

• Enriching Experiences.

o Preserved or enhanced culturally or historically significant sites and communities, including

continued and improved access to water and land used for sacred ceremonies or practices.

o Preserved and larger natural areas with aesthetic or intrinsic value.

o Continued and improved access to resources that support education and learning.

o Continued or enhanced recreational opportunities in waterways, reservoirs, and natural and

open spaces.

Sustainability Outlook: Guiding Principles for Balancing the Four Societal Values

The guiding principles listed below describe how water and resource managers can balance the societal

values and thus better utilize the Sustainability Outlook to make decisions and do business. These

principles support effective planning by fostering trust through integrity, accuracy, transparency, and

proper use of information in decision-making.

• Manage California’s water resources and management systems through an ongoing, resilient,

and dynamic balance of four societal values.

• Apply California’s longstanding principles of reasonable use and public trust, as the foundation

for public policy-making, planning, and management decisions on California water resources.

• Promote environmental justice — the fair and equal treatment of people of all races, cultures,

and incomes.

• Help establish shared intent for sustainability with long-view perspective for water resources

management.

• Strengthen partnerships and help enhance governance to improve and align at all levels of

government for effective, integrated water resource management.

• Promote regional planning and resource management on a watershed scale to increase regional

self-reliance and effectiveness, and acknowledge each region’s unique perspectives, needs, and

priorities.

• Acknowledge future variability, risk and uncertainties, and cultivate learning and adaptation in

the decision-making process.

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• Use science, best data, and local and traditional ecological knowledge in a transparent and

documented process.

• Invest with a long-term view toward substantial and predictable public funding to increase

system flexibility and resiliency.

Sustainability Outlook: Development Process

The Sustainability Outlook builds on existing and ongoing sustainability measurement efforts in the state

and nationwide. This includes sustainability assessment pilots conducted by DWR as part of Update

2013; watershed sustainability efforts by the State Water Resources Control Board; work by the

California Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of the State Wildlife Action Plan; and work by other

State agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions. DWR reviewed existing

sustainability efforts and conducted numerous meetings and workshops with State agencies and the

public to solicit input and feedback. This included identifying and proposing draft water-related

outcomes tied to the four societal values; identifying potential data sources and information that could

be used to assess sustainability; and considering different scales of application, from watershed to

statewide.

DWR initially envisioned the Sustainability Outlook being applied periodically, at a statewide scale, to

generate a simple “report card” for how well water was being sustainably managed in California. As the

department explored different methodologies and received feedback, the vision for the Sustainability

Outlook and its application evolved. During this process, DWR identified success criteria for the

Sustainability Outlook. The outlook must be:

• Easy to understand, for wide and timely adoption.

• Flexible, to allow for different conditions and issues in areas throughout this diverse state.

• Adaptable, for new requirements.

• Coordinated with, but not duplicative of, existing efforts.

• Able to account for data availability/accessibility and technical needs.

• Reasonable, implementable, and repeatable.

These criteria were foundational to the development of the process and approach described herein,

which now includes a basic method for assessing sustainability; a toolbox of data and information that

can be applied; and a plan to apply the method, over time, in individual watersheds throughout

California.

A detailed description of DWR’s process for developing the Sustainability Outlook — where it comes

from, where it currently stands, and where it is going — is included in Appendix <add #>.

Sustainability Outlook: Methodology

The Sustainability Outlook uses data (indicators) to help assess progress in achieving desired results

(intended outcomes) linked to the four societal values.

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Intended outcomes articulate the desired results from managing California’s water resources in a

manner that balances the four societal values. For example, the outcomes related to the societal value

of Enriching Experiences consider the human relationship to water — in homes, in communities, and in

the environment. The outcomes related to Ecosystem Vitality consider three important facets of a

healthy and sustainable ecosystem: abundance, natural processes, and beneficial uses of water in the

environment. The intended outcomes are considered long term, but they may change over time. For

example, an outcome related to ecosystem vitality could continue to evolve as our understanding of

ecological systems and the processes that sustain healthy ecosystems grows.

Indicators are the data and information that are used to measure what progress has been made in

achieving the intended outcomes at a given point in time. California water management is complex and

the interlying regions are diverse. Large volumes of data are already being collected throughout the

state by local, regional, and State entities. Not all data are relevant to decision-making in all regions, and

it is neither practical nor necessary to use all available data to assess water management sustainability.

For these reasons, the Sustainability Outlook identifies a manageable set of indicators that apply

statewide and can be used to conduct watershed-scale sustainability assessments.

An example indicator for the intended outcome related to “exposure of people to waterborne health

threats” is the number of public water systems not in compliance with drinking water standards. These

are data currently collected by the State Water Resources Control Board, and they can be reliably and

repeatedly collected. When measured over time, and in combination with other indicators, they can

provide good insight into whether Californians are being exposed to waterborne health threats.

Societal Value Intended Outcome Example Indicator

Public Health and Safety Reduced number of people exposed to waterborne health threats, such as contaminants or infectious agents

Number of public water systems not in compliance with drinking water standards

Applied at the state level, indicators are intended to be broad and cover differing conditions (e.g.,

coastal and inland areas; north and south of, as well as in, the Delta). At a watershed level, indicators

will measure what is relevant to a specific area, which may or may not be the same as what is relevant

on a statewide basis (e.g., specific areas of the state where most of the population is not served by a

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public water system; or flood safety improvements in upper watersheds, which would likely differ from

those in valleys). Indicators may change as the ability to collect and interpret data changes, the

conditions in the state and watersheds change, or the understanding of intended outcomes evolves.

In Update 2018, the Sustainability Outlook identifies the basics of how sustainability assessments will be

conducted at a watershed scale. Conducting the assessments at a watershed scale will more clearly

reveal trends, progress, and return on investment that would be difficult to discern at a statewide scale.

Doing so will also allow for the introduction of additional indicators important to specific regions of the

state. Through progressive application of the Sustainability Outlook, decision-makers will be able to

identify needed analytical tools and data, expand on the information available to make good decisions,

and build a common and transparent understanding of how individual and collective actions affect

sustainable management of water resources.

Piloting the Sustainability Outlook DWR is actively engaged in ongoing and upcoming pilot programs, and intends to demonstrate how the

Sustainability Outlook can be applied at a watershed scale. The goal is to measure progress and

effectiveness of recommended actions to support long-term water resource sustainability. DWR has

entered into partnerships, with California Forward and the Pacific Institute, to pilot the Sustainability

Outlook with two efforts at a watershed scale. The department also is working with the Water

Foundation to incorporate lessons learned from its recently completed Sustainability Water

Management Profile (SWM Profile) into those two pilots. It is anticipated each pilot study would use

indicators described in Appendix <add #> to measure the progress and effectiveness of recommended

actions for long-term water resource sustainability.

Sustainable Water Management Profile

In 2016, the Water Foundation partnered with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency to pilot development

of a SWM Profile, a mechanism to drive continual improvement toward long-term supply resilience and

water resource stewardship at a regional (or watershed) scale in California. This pilot SWM Profile

assessed how the water agency was performing by examining the water supplies upon which it directly

or indirectly relied. Using simple metrics, the SWM Profile identified the vulnerability of its water

systems to key stressors (also known as risks or threats) in the areas of environment, supply, demand,

and finance. The SWM Profile evaluated management responses to these stressors by both the water

agency and the broader region.

Russian River Watershed

The Russian River watershed was selected as pilot area because of established relationships, as well as

the innovative and participatory local entities with relatively few distinctive jurisdictions or agencies

compared with other watersheds in the state. Work will be performed in alignment with California

Forward’s and Sonoma County Water Agency’s sustainability planning when developing a framework for

defining sustainability outcomes and metrics, aligning regulatory processes to achieve sustainable

outcomes, improving governance and implementation efficiency, and identifying funding and finance

options and capacity across the four societal values. As planned, the work will apply the outcome-based

planning concepts advanced by the Water Plan at a watershed scale. Additional work under this pilot

will provide insight on policy development of watershed-based planning, regulation, governance, and

funding and finance innovations.

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Multi-Benefit Investment Strategies Project, Santa Ana Watershed

In collaboration with the Pacific Institute, Santa Ana Watershed Protection Authority, and other

stakeholders in the watershed, this pilot project will develop a unifying framework for evaluating multi-

benefits as an outcome from water investment projects. The framework will facilitate development of

consistent tools that quantify benefits embedded in specific water projects, while providing flexible

application for a specific watershed, interest, or query. As planned, this pilot will work with both

technical and practical experts in multi-benefit valuation of water projects to be sure that the unifying

framework for evaluation of projects is useful and that there will be broad adoption. Overall, this project

will allow for a better comparison between integrated and traditional (single purpose) projects to

provide the necessary justification for cost-sharing among the beneficiaries of these projects.

Moving Forward to 2023 and Beyond The initial results of the pilot projects will be included in the final draft of Update 2018. Subsequent

results of the pilots will be used to test and refine the indicators, as well as the overall Sustainability

Outlook approach. DWR intends to work with regional water management groups and other partners to

develop appropriately scaled, watershed-based Sustainability Outlooks. Planning at a watershed scale

can help water managers evaluate and consider the interdependencies among physical, biological,

economic, and social processes, from headwaters to outlets, as well as interbasin interactions. It is

anticipated that these Watershed Sustainability Outlooks will be included in California Water Plan

Update 2023, to support statewide planning and inform State investment priorities. DWR recognizes

that most of the work to advance sustainable water resources management will occur at regional and

local levels.

Moving forward, additional data and tools will be developed and employed to strengthen the

Sustainability Outlook approach, evaluate trends, and assess current and future sustainability.