Title
Consider adopting the "Standards and Guiding Principles of Reservoir Operations During Drought Conditions" for the Drought Operations Technical Advisory Committee.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Monterey County Water Resources Agency Board of Directors:
Adopt the "Standards and Guiding Principles of Reservoir Operations During Drought Conditions" for the Drought Operations Technical Advisory Committee.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
Provisions for the formation of a Drought Operations Technical Advisory Committee (D-TAC) were developed through a litigation settlement agreement (Attachment 1, Appendix A) as an ad hoc committee of independent third-party experts with expertise in any of the following fields: hydrology, hydrogeology, hydrologic modeling, civil engineering, ecology, or fish and wildlife biology. In January 2020 the Monterey County Water Resources Agency (MCWRA) opened an application cycle, via its website, available to all interested organizations and parties wishing to participate. The experts would be retained and paid for, but not employed by any interested person or organization.
In the summer of 2020, the MCWRA formed and convened a D-TAC to create a standards and guiding principles document which would be used in the development of a proposed reservoir release schedule, when triggered under specific, seasonally defined conditions (Attachment 1). The D-TAC formally met on three occasions in August, November and December of 2020 to deliberate on a set of standards and guiding principles; ultimately reaching consensus at their December 18, 2020 meeting. The final document not only captured those standards and guiding principles, but also the triggers and procedures in which the D-TAC would reconvene to develop a proposed reservoir release schedule.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
On January 28, 2021 the Reservoir Operations Advisory Committee recommended that the Monterey County Water Resources Agency Board of Directors adopt "Sta...
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