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Mediation and Facilitation for the Preservation,
Enhancement, and Use of Estuarine Habitat in California
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
Category III Steering Committee
On December 15, 1994, the State of California,
the Federal government, and participating California water user
organizations and environmental interest groups entered into an
historic agreement establishing principles to enhance protection
of the San Francisco Bay / Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary.
That statement of principles created a framework for implementing
a set of integrated water quality, flow, and operational control
strategies to preserve and enhance estuarine habitat in the Estuary,
while simultaneously respecting the multiple beneficial uses of
the area. It also stated that the signatories were committed to
implementation and financing of so-called "Category III"
measures to address non-flow factors as part of a comprehensive
ecosystem protection plan for the Estuary.
Because of the complex ecological and institutional
challenges associated with ensuring success of the Category III
program — and therefore of the Agreement itself — ESSA
was retained to provide facilitation / mediation services to support
activities of the Category III Steering Committee. In this role,
ESSA provided guidance and problem-solving during meetings, as well
as leadership for a number of ongoing initiatives related to institutional
design, program/project identification and selection, financing,
and other aspects of the evolving ecosystem protection plan for
the estuary. Additionally, ESSA took the lead in introducing a systems
analysis approach to identifying needed projects and programs. A
multi-disciplinary / multi-stakeholder workshop was held to develop
a conceptual model (featuring spring-run chinook salmon as a test
case) which was then used as a tool in discussions concerning programs
and projects needed to prevent the species from being extirpated.
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