Delta Vision Workshops

Land subsidence, deteriorating levees, agricultural sustainability, increasing urbanization, water supply reliability, ecosystem health, and water quality - these are all major challenges facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Confronted with the question of how to sustain the Delta, local and state officials, Delta residents, environmentalists, water agencies and others are working to craft a vision of the Delta 100 years from today.

There are multiple Delta Vision processes underway and a decision on the future of the Delta will be made in the next two years. Unlike past planning efforts that focused primarily on the Delta's water resource issues and ecosystem, these current efforts have expanded to include land use planning, recreation, flood management, and energy, rail and transportation infrastructure. How - or if - all these competing demands can be accommodated is the question facing state and federal officials, local agencies and stakeholders.

There are no simple answers. Crafting such a vision will require an understanding of the science behind the issues. It will require broad participation from a wide variety of stakeholders. It will require an open, honest debate about these politically charged issues. To help agency officials and stakeholders from all communities with a stake in the Delta's future learn about these issues and processes underway, the Water Education Foundation is launching a series of educational workshops. These workshops will be held around the state and feature panel discussions on topics of interest, and include audience break-out sessions designed to reflect the ways dialog can continue on these topics. Recommendations from these sessions will be forwarded to the state's Delta vision planning processes. And following each workshop, the Foundation will post a workshop summary of the discussions on its web site.