Welcome to The Delta Dispatch, a podcast series connecting you to The Delta Plan - California's comprehensive, long-term strategy to achieve both a reliable water supply and a healthy, resilient Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta Plan includes Performance Measures – carefully selected and data-driven metrics that measure and track progress towards these coequal goals.
These measures can be as complex as the Delta itself. On each episode of The Delta Dispatch, we aim to demystify them! Through conversations with experts, we delve into some of the most impactful performance measures, elucidating not only why they are important, but also examining their impact and meaning from multiple perspectives.
If you had the ability to influence the story of an ecosystem as it was being penned, how would you write it? This is the core question behind this episode of the Delta Dispatch, where we discuss the history and future of the Delta’s many natural environments. As a region that has seen dramatic change, we discuss the need to restore ecosystems that have been lost, the role of restoration projects in doing so, and how all of that ties to the ultimate idea of stewardship.
Join our guests Dylan Chapple (Delta Science Program, Delta Stewardship Council) and Don Hankins (CSU Chico) as we discuss our relationship and responsibility to the Delta’s natural lands – as well as the adventures we undertake to restore them.
Stream episode Delta Dispatch Episode 5- Restoration, Reciprocity
Guest Information
Dylan Chapple, Ph.D.
Environmental Program Manager, Adaptive Management Unit, Delta Science Program
A true interdisciplinary scientist, Dylan’s passion for working on environmental issues is extremely apparent. With a doctorate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, he has helped advance many environmental efforts in California from restoration to citizen science. His expertise in adaptive management is crucial to the mission of the Delta Science Program, where he covers a wide range of topics from salinity management to ecosystem restoration.
Don Hankins, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography and Planning, California State University, Chico
With an undergraduate degree in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Davis, Don researches and teaches courses on pyrogeography, ecohydrology, landscape conservation, environmental policy and Indigenous stewardship. Don is also Miwok from the Delta, maintaining cultural traditions that tie strongly to his work and identity as a land steward and proponent of ecocultural restoration.
Water is a BIG topic. Not only is it absolutely essential to all life, its also something that people can base entire careers in, from researching quality to managing our supply of the stuff. In fact, an entire half of the state's Coequal goals for the Delta revolve around our supply of water!
Follow the journey of California's water supply in this episode of the Delta Dispatch, as we talk to guest experts Anthony Navasero (California Department of Water Resources) and Jofil Borja (Sacramento Area Sewer District). Along the way, find out what "water supply" means, why the movement and distribution of water is important, and how the wastewater that flows down your sink might be a key to a more reliable and sustainable future.
Stream episode Delta Dispatch Episode 4- From Snowpack to Spigot
Guest Information
Anthony Navasero
Drought Coordinator in the Executive Branch of the Department of Water Resources (DWR)
Anthony received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, and has been a registered Civil Engineer with the State of California since 2002. After working 13 years in the private sector, he shifted into public service. This journey began in 2011 at DWR, in the Division of Flood in the Hydrology and Flood Operation Office (HAFOO). In 2014, he took a position at the Delta Stewardship Council in 2014 before returning to DWR in 2022, where he now coordinates and facilitates planning for future droughts and water supply shortages.
Jofil Borja, MPA
Environmental Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager | Harvest Water APMO Manager, SacSewer
A true professional in sustainable infrastructure, Jofil brings his passion and years of expertise to the Sacramento Area Sewer district with the full knowledge they offer more than just sewage collection and treatment. He is actively involved in the district’s Harvest Water project – recycling wastewater into a sustainable local source of water for agriculture that takes pressure of our natural resources and helps us achieve a vison of both reliability and sustainability in our water supply.
Why are big piles of dirt, mud, and rocks so important to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta? Did you know that without them, the Delta of today would look drastically different?
Find out why in this episode of the Delta Dispatch, where we talk to levee and flood risk experts Erin Mullin (Delta Stewardship Council) and Kathleen Schaefer (UC Davis) and examine exactly how the Delta's system of dirt piles absolutely earn the moniker "the hardest working levees in America."
Stream episode Delta Dispatch Episode 3 - Silent Defenders of the Delta
Guest Information
Erin Mullin, Lead Engineer, Delta Stewardship Council
Erin Mullin is the lead engineer at the Delta Stewardship Council - heading up a talented team in charge of chapters 3 and 7 of the Delta Plan. Across a storied career that includes time at the Department of Water Resources, she’s learned everything she can about the complicated and messy world of the Delta levees. As she often reflects on how the coequal goals themselves are built on levees, her breadth of knowledge and passion for the subject is second to none.
Dr. Kathleen Schaefer
Kathleen Schaefer earned her doctorate from UC Davis, studying the complex topic of flood risk management. Informed by a career at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she seeks to induce change in the complicated world of flood insurance. Currently, she leads a pilot program for a new system of community-based insurance in the city of Isleton – which has historically been flooded due to levee failure. Through her work, she hopes that more people can have access to disaster relief at times when they need it most.
Did you know that some areas of the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta are literally below sea level? Land that used to match the level of the rivers and tides has vanished before our very eyes, and some people now live, work, and farm on land 20-30 feet below elevation mark zero.
This phenomenon of land sinking - called subsidence - is the subject of this episode of the Delta Dispatch. Within, we explore subsidence in the Delta with Guests Campbell Ingram of the Delta Conservancy and Steve Deverel of Hydrofocus – from what causes it to what it means for our Delta, and the Delta Plan performance measures aimed at its reversal.
Guest Information
Campbell Ingram, Executive Officer, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
Campbell became the first Executive Officer of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy in March of 2011. The Conservancy is tasked with being a lead agency for ecosystem restoration in the Delta and supporting efforts that advance environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents.
Steven Deverel, Principal Hydrologist and President, HydroFocus, Inc.
Steven Deverel has over 40 years of experience in California and throughout the western United States. After completing a doctorate at the University of California at Davis in 1983, Steven worked at the US Geological Survey where he investigated the hydrologic and geochemical processes associated with land subsidence in the Delta. Since 1994, he has worked in the private sector, opened a consulting firm in 1996 and cofounded HydroFocus, Inc. in 1998. Steven has authored numerous publications related to land subsidence and strategies for mitigating subsidence and has also led and participated in investigations into impacts of subsidence on ecosystem processes, agriculture, and infrastructure and implementation of land uses and restoration for mitigating subsidence.
Have you ever seen bright green patches of algae floating in the water? You might be seeing a bloom of algae... and it might be harmful to you and your pets!
In this episode, we explore Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with Guests Tricia Lee (Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Science Program) and Spencer Fern (Restore the Delta). We delve into what HABs are, examine their causes and impacts on human health, and discuss the performance measure aimed at monitoring and mitigating their effects.
Guest Information
Tricia Lee, Senior Environmental Scientist, Delta Stewardship Council Delta Science Program
Tricia Lee is a senior environmental scientist at the Delta Stewardship Council, where she works to increase collaborative science on priority emergent water quality topics such as harmful algal blooms and contaminants of emerging concern. Prior to joining the Council as staff in 2021, she completed a Sea Grant State Fellowship with the Council in 2017 and later worked in a variety of roles to optimize sustainable aquatic resource management. Tricia has a MS in Marine Biology from San Francisco State University at the Romberg Tiburon Center. When she's not working, Tricia enjoys paddleboarding, cooking from her garden, and spending time with her husband and pets.
Spencer Fern, Delta Science Program Manager, Restore the Delta
Spencer Fern was born and raised in Stockton, California, and grew up recreating on the Delta. He currently works on monitoring for the harmful algal blooms in the Delta. Spencer attended college at CSU Monterey Bay, where he studied biology and received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology in 2019. He returned to Stockton that same year and was hired by Restore the Delta in 2021. He took the job because it aligned with his desire to work in the science field while also being connected to the Delta he grew up recreating in. In working on HABs issues, he’s been involved with water agencies ranging from the State Water Board, Metropolitan Water District, San Francisco Baykeeper, Delta Stewardship Council, and more.
This podcast is meant for informational purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the views or positions of California Sea Grant, the Delta Stewardship Council, the Delta Science Program, or any related programs.
-
The Delta Dispatch
The Delta Dispatch podcast was produced to connect audiences to the intricacies of the Delta Plan and its performance measures. Delta Plan performance measures allow the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Plan implementing agencies, stakeholders and the public to track how well the goals and objectives defined in the Delta Plan are being achieved and to detect environmental or administrative changes due to implementation of policies and recommendations in the Delta Plan.
Relying on science and monitoring data, these measurable indicators are based on numeric targets and include dates to achieve the targets as well as baseline conditions against which to evaluate progress.
Delta Plan performance measures allow the Delta Stewardship Council to integrate science and monitoring results into decision-making, adaptive management, and to track progress towards the coequal goals.
An updated set of performance measures was adopted by the Council in June 2022 as Appendix E of the Delta Plan.
-