SF Water Board proposes policy changes to protect San Francisco Bay and Outlying Areas

Today at the BARC Governing Board meeting, the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) announced proposed changes to the region's Water Quality Control Plan, known as the Basin Plan, to better protect shorelines from sea level rise, storm surges, and flooding.

The proposed measures emphasize greener, more natural solutions, and including strategic placement of sediment to replenish and maintain marshes, changing levees to allow marsh migration to higher elevations, and utilizing gravel to protect the shoreline without harming the ecosystem. 

"Protecting vulnerable communities and critical habitat is a priority for us, and we need to move quickly," said Michael Montgomery, Executive Officer of the Water Board. "The proposed changes we shared today are critical to adapting and safeguarding our vulnerable shorelines and imperiled watersheds."

The Water Board recently became a non-voting member of BARC, where its expertise and authority will help to enhance the efforts of the regional agencies to combat the impacts of sea level rise and flooding around the Bay Area.

Read the full press release here.