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<br />Bulletin 160..98 Public Review Draft <br /> <br />003J77 <br /> <br />Appendix 2A. Institutional Framework for Allocating <br />and Managing Water Resources in California <br /> <br />health levels for contaminants. DHS was authorized to consider the technical and economic <br />feasibility of reducing contaminants in setting MCLs. The standards established by DHS are <br />found in the California Code of Regulations, Title 22. <br />Historic Background -- Bay-Delta Regulatory Actions <br />The SWRCB issued the first water rights permits to the USBR for operation of the CVP <br />in 1958, and to DWR for operation of the SWP in 1967. In these and all succeeding permits <br />issued for the CVP and SWP, the SWRCB reserved jurisdiction to reformulate or revise terms <br />and conditions relative to salinity control, effect on vested rights, and fish and wildlife protection <br />in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Board has a dual role of issuing both water rights <br />permits and regulating water quality. <br />Decision 1485 <br />In 1976, the Board initiated proceedings leading to the adoption of Water Right Decision <br />1485 in 1978, Decision 1485 set forth conditions--including water quality standards, export <br />limitations, and minimum flow rates--for SWP and CVP operations in the Delta and superseded <br />all previous water rights decisions for the SWP and CVP operations in the Delta, Among <br />beneficial uses to be protected by the decision were: (1) municipal and industrial water supply, <br />(2) agriculture, and (3) fish and wildlife. <br />In formulating Decision 1485, the SWRCB asserted that Delta water quality should be at <br />least as good as it would have been if the SWP and CVP had not been constructed. In other <br />words, both the SWP and the CVP were to be operated to meet "without project" conditions. <br />Decision 1485 standards included different levels of protection to reflect variations in hydrologic <br />conditions during different types of water years. <br />To help implement these water quality standards, Decision 1485 mandated an extensive <br />monitoring program. It also called for special studies to provide critical data about major <br />concerns in the Delta and Suisun Marsh for which information was insufficient. Decision 1485 <br />included water quality standards for Suisun Marsh, as well as for the Delta, requiring DWR and <br />the USBR to develop a plan for the marsh that would ensure meeting long-term standards. <br />Recognizing that the complexities of project operations and water quality conditions <br />would change over time, the SWRCB also specified that the Delta water right hearings would be <br />reopened within ten years of the date of adoption of Decision 1485, depending upon changing <br /> <br />2A-IS <br />