Environmental flows workgroup organizes under California Water Quality Monitoring Council

A group of technical experts working to coordinate environmental flow management programs statewide was officially recognized in November as a workgroup of the California Water Quality Monitoring Council.

The recognition gives the workgroup – which includes participation by SCCWRP – more visibility and accessibility to agency staff as it works to develop a more consistent approach to how watershed managers set ecologically optimal flow targets. The Water Quality Monitoring Council is made up of water-quality management agencies from across California; its goal is to improve coordination of water-quality monitoring and assessment programs statewide.

Environmental flow management has historically not been well-coordinated across California, resulting in fragmentation and inconsistencies among the multiple agencies responsible for setting environmental flow targets.

The workgroup’s goals include making environmental flow data more readily accessible and comparable across the state, and establishing a common approach to how various agencies use the wide variety of existing flow management tools and approaches to set flow targets.