By Christine Souza , Ag Alert
State and federal agencies face a challenge to balance the beneficial uses of water needed by farmers with needs of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem, as water officials plan for climate change impacts.
In seeking to coordinate long-term operation of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a draft environmental impact statement, or EIS, for the public to review by Sept. 9.
The EIS seeks to influence operations for California’s two primary water-delivery systems, which guide pumping of water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, sending water south to tens of millions of people and to millions of acres of farmland.
The document was drafted in response to a 2021 executive order by President Joe Biden that called for a review of 2019 biological opinions under then-President Donald Trump related to coordinated long-term operation of the state and federal water projects.
The EIS document, released July 26, includes four proposed alternatives to the no-action alternative that establish different objectives for storage, release and diversion of water that would lead to different downstream flow, water supply and power generation impacts that change depending on water-year type and season.
“A lot of documents have been dropped on the street by the federal agencies in the last couple weeks,” said Thad Bettner, executive director for the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, which holds contracts with the bureau to divert water from the Sacramento River. “We’ve also been reviewing the state Department of Water Resources document for operation of the State Water Project, and that process has to align with the federal process.”
For the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, Bettner said the draft alternatives mean irrigators would see less water in critically dry years, as water is diverted for instream uses and to protect cold water resources at Shasta Reservoir.
“Really, the end result is the water yield coming out of the project is going to be dedicated to the fish and to the environment,” Bettner said. “That is going to be the outcome of the new biological opinions and what the state is going to issue.”
The partnership of water districts is willing to help meet storage requirements in Shasta Reservoir in critical drought years, Bettner said. But irrigators “are not going to backstop it” whenever the reservoir level drops, he added. As for the proposed water supply reductions in the bureau’s draft to help fish, he said, “we want to make sure that based on these reductions, that the fish are going to get better.”
“The agencies need to be committed to seeing fish do really well because if the fish are not doing really well in good years, we need to find out why that’s not happening,” Bettner said.
He said the Settlement Contractors has advocated for a suite of specific actions and projects in the winter-run action plan to help rebound fish populations.
“The sources of the problem biologically are complex,” said Chris Scheuring, senior counsel for the California Farm Bureau, which has members who would be affected by changes in operation of the projects. “And we’ve always said protecting the species is not just flow related but involves a complex suite of factors such as habitat, food supply, predation and more.”
As agencies work to finalize plans to operate the CVP and SWP, Bettner said the process must consider other related efforts, such as the state’s water quality control plan update for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the proposed Sites Reservoir, designed to hold 1.5 million acre-feet of water northwest of Sacramento.
For south-of-delta water users, Allison Febbo, general manager for Westlands Water District, a CVP contractor, said the bureau’s proposed alternatives for long-term operations of the projects mean less water as agencies store more water in Shasta Reservoir as temperature control for fish.
“We are advocating for finding ways to achieve those results while trying to maintain water supply to the highest ability we can,” Febbo said. “We have realized that we are not going to get better until everybody else in the ecosystem gets better, so our goal is to work with folks and make sure that all ships rise with the rising tide.”
Westlands is evaluating thousands of pages of the draft EIS, but for now, Febbo said the district supports the “risk-informed operations” alternative, which she said identifies actions that incorporate new science and considers population-level effects to species and responds to conditions in real time.
She said that option is “more reactive to actual ecosystem conditions and uses the best information to balance water supply and ecosystem needs.”
The outcome from many different but related efforts by state and federal agencies to balance water among beneficial uses “are crucial to the survival of Westlands and Central Valley agriculture,” Febbo said.
For the past 10 years, Febbo said fallowed acres in Westlands’ 600,000-acre area range from 200,000 to 225,000 acres.
“We know that our water supply is not matching our need and especially with SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) and our groundwater limitations,” she said.
In this average water year, Febbo said, Westlands started the season with a 15% water allocation in late February. This allocation increased to 50% in June, which she said is too late for farmers to plant more acres.
With water uncertainty becoming more of an issue, south-of-delta water contractors, including Westlands and others, in May announced a memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Reclamation. The agreement identifies a long-term drought plan and development of a “drought pool” in which participating water users contribute water that is stored for future use in dry years.
“I’m pretty proud of the south-delta drought plan because I don’t think there have been times in the past where all of our entities have been able to sit down and work and collaborate together,” Febbo said.
The target date for Reclamation’s decision on its long-term operations plan for the projects is Dec. 13. The following meetings have been scheduled for offering public comment on the draft EIS: Aug. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m., Los Banos Community Center, 645 Seventh St., Los Banos; Aug. 8, from 3 to 5 p.m. via Zoom; Aug. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m., Veteran’s Memorial building, 1605 Yuba St., Redding; Aug. 15, from noon to 3 p.m., via Zoom; Aug. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m., Sacramento Capital Event Center M.A.Y. building, 1020 11th St., Sacramento; and Aug. 22, from 6 to 8 p.m., via Zoom.
Written comments may be submitted online by Sept. 9 at sha-mpr-bdo@usbr.gov. To learn more, visit www.usbr.gov/mp/bdo/lto/index.html.
(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
