Water Board Issues Draft Water Quality Certification

 In November 2020, the State Water Board released its draft water quality certification (including flow requirements) for the licensing of Don Pedro and La Grange Dams. States are granted this authority under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. This is extremely important because the State has much stricter legal obligations to protect environmental resources than the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), so we’re hopeful the State’s mandatory conditions will be incorporated into the licenses.

The Water Board rushed the draft in order to be able to issue a final certification prior to FERC ruling on whether it will waive the State’s authority. Under the leadership of Chris Shutes from the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, our coalition submitted an excellent comment letter on the draft. While the draft includes some very good measures, it needs to be tightened up in order to withstand legal challenges.