Yeah. And they let vast amounts just run out to the sea to protect the Delta smelt or the Nurovian dancing frogs or some other invasive species.
“And they let vast amounts just run out to the sea to protect the Delta smelt...”
Ehhhh, not so much the fish.
The effluent rate is controlled to keep the fresh/salt water interface downstream of municipal water supply intakes as the tides rise and fall. On a rising tide, the fresh/salt interface zone pushes quite a ways back up the delta, and if there’s not enough fresh water coming down the river to keep it pushed back toward SF Bay, municipal water supplies could too easily get inundated with seawater.