East Contra Costa County Integrated Regional Water Management

Overcoming Water Management Challenges Collaboratively

Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) is a collaborative effort to manage all aspects of water resources in a region. IRWM crosses jurisdictional, watershed, and political boundaries; involves multiple agencies, stakeholders, individuals, and groups; and attempts to address the issues and differing perspectives of all the entities involved through mutually beneficial solutions. IRWM is a program originally defined by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and is supported financially through voter-approved propositions.

The East Contra Costa County IRWM Region is a distinct geographic region that covers 350 square miles and is isolated from its neighboring regions by the ridge lines of Mt Diablo to the south and west, and the Delta waterways to the north and east.  The region has a long history of collaborative regional water management planning, starting with the preparation and implementation of an East County Water Management Plan in 1996. Since that time, the region developed a Functionally Equivalent IRWM Plan in 2005, was formally accepted as an IRWM region by DWR in 2009, and completed updates to its IRWM Plan in 2013, 2015, and 2019.