Bulletin 160-93, The California Water Plan Update, October 1994

Foreword

Over 35 years have passed since the California Water Plan was published in 1957 to guide and coordinate beneficial use of California's water resources. In the ensuing years, our population has continued to grow, approaches to water resource management have changed, and water policies have become a complex mix of public input, legislation, litigation, and federal mandates. Bulletin 160-93, The California Water Plan Update, is a two-volume work that documents much of how population growth, land use, and water allocations for the environment are affecting water resource management. The bulletin discusses the effects of more stringent water quality standards, the Endangered Species acts, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992, and efforts to solve problems in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary. Most importantly, Bulletin 160-93 presents both statewide and regional water budgets and reveals the gap between supply and demand that must be filled if California is to have reliable water supplies. It differs from the five previous water plan updates by:

• estimating environmental water needs separately and accounting for these needs along with urban and agricultural water demands;
• presenting water demand management methods, including conservation and land retirement, as additional means of meeting water needs; and,
• presenting two separate water balance scenarios for average and drought conditions.

The bulletin was developed with extensive public involvement. An outreach advisory committee made up of representatives of urban, agricultural, and environmental interests was established in July 1992 to assist the Department of Water Resources in developing the bulletin. The committee met regularly to review and comment on the content and adequacy of work in progress. In addition, the California Water Commission held public hearings in each of the ten major hydrologic regions to receive comments from the public about the November 1993 draft of The California Water Plan Update. Summaries of the comments received during the public hearing and comment period are in Appendix B of the bulletin.

This executive summary highlights the major points of Bulletin 160-93. Condensing over 700 pages of information into less than 50 requires that much of the background, figures, and data be generalized or excluded. Thus, this report is an overview of where California's water resource planning must focus to ensure reliable supplies. The data contained here and in Bulletin 160-93 are current as of 1993. However, a few events and agreements which occurred during the first part of 1994 are briefly discussed in the report. Readers should turn to Bulletin 160-93 to answer questions that the executive summary might raise.

David N. Kennedy
Director

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