San Juan and its water agency partners in the Central Valley proposed an alternative to the State Water Resources Control Board plan to require massive reservoir releases to match their estimate of “unimpaired flows” in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.  The draft was submitted in December, and a final version was provided on March 1.  The alternative plan, known as the Voluntary Agreement,  includes additional instream flows, as well as large amounts of habitat restoration, to improve spawning and rearing conditions for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native species.  The next step is to conduct an analysis of the environmental benefits and impact of both the unimpaired flows approach and the flows plus habitat alternative, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2019.

For more information on this issue, see the summary of the proposal by the American River agencies here: