Report 2022-106 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2022-106: Department of Water Resources: Its Forecasts Do Not Adequately Account for Climate Change and Its Reasons for Some Reservoir Releases Are Unclear (Release Date: May 2023)

Recommendation #6 To: Water Resources, Department of

To ensure that it continually improves the effectiveness of its management of the State Water Project, DWR should develop and implement a formal, written process for reviewing its planning and operations at least once annually. This process should include the following:

1. An assessment of DWR's success at achieving each of the project's various objectives.

2. An evaluation of DWR's actions to achieve its objectives, including the decisions that it made in its planning and in its day-to-day management of the project. DWR should identify actions that assisted it in achieving its objectives and that would benefit its operations in the future, as well as actions that were less effective.

3. Documentation of lessons learned from the evaluation of its actions and, if necessary, updates to its planning or procedural documents to incorporate changes.

6-Month Agency Response

On October 18, 2023, DWR provided the California Water Commission an annual review of the SWP Operations and Planning for Water Year (WY) 2023 and the approach to the SWP Planning and Operations for WY 2024. SWP's presentation to the California Water Commission is available through this webcast link: https://www.water-ca.com/archives.html. On December 4, 2023, and annually thereafter, DWR will provide an in-depth briefing of the past year's planning and operations to the Public Water Agencies at the full-day Water Management Workshop. DWR will develop a policy for conducting periodic reviews of SWP's planning and operations by May 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

DWR continues to provide an annual review of SWP operations that is incorporated into the California Water Commission's annual report (https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2023/2022_SWPAnnualReview_Final.pdf). DWR is scheduled to provide its next review to the California Water Commission on November 15, 2023, when DWR will provide additional information on its operations.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

When we followed up with DWR about its response, staff indicated that DWR intends to implement the recommendation by submitting additional materials for the California Water Commission's next annual report, and that DWR is in the process of determining what additional materials it will provide. When DWR has done so, we will assess whether its actions address all elements of our recommendation.

All Recommendations in 2022-106

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.