TO: Technical Advisory Group for the Napa County Groundwater Sustainability Agency
FROM: Brian D. Bordona - Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Jamison Crosby, Natural Resources Conservation Manager
SUBJECT: California Environmental Flows Framework application within the Napa River Watershed Presentation by Dr. Sarah Yarnell
RECOMMENDATION
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Technical Advisory Group (TAG) members will receive a presentation from Dr. Sarah Yarnell, Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis and a member of the technical team that developed the California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF). CEFF, an environmental flows assessment, is being applied to the Napa River under the Interconnected Surface Water and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Workplan to understand existing aquatic and terrestrial species health and determine what flows may be necessary to sustain these species.
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BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) is a management approach that provides technical guidance to help managers efficiently develop scientifically defensible environmental flow recommendations that balance human and ecosystem needs for water. The purpose of CEFF is to support the development of ecological flow criteria, which are quantifiable metrics that describe the ranges of flows necessary to support the natural functions of healthy ecosystems. After the development of ecological flow criteria, environmental flow recommendations can be developed by managers to take human use and other water management objectives into consideration. Application of CEFF to the Napa River Watershed is underway in the Interconnected Surface Water and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Workplan (ISW and GDEs Workplan). Dr. Yarnell will speak to steps necessary to establish ecological flow criteria at the six intensive monitoring sites that emerged from the ISW/GDE Workplan development.
Procedure
Staff introduces.
Questions and answers with the TAG.
Public comments.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
A. CEFF PowerPoint Presentation by Dr. Sarah Yarnell, May 2024