Informational resources include new Story Map on the incorporation of climate change conditions into the new operations plan and the efforts to protect winter-run Chinook salmon.
The Bureau of Reclamation has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the long-term operation of the Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP) and is taking comments from the public through Sept. 9, 2024. The draft document considers revised operations of dams, powerplants, and related facilities of the Central Valley Project and Delta facilities of the State Water Project. An EIS is a federal document prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and is similar to an Environmental Impact Report prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
What is this document? Here is some background …
As is usually the case in California water, it’s a long and litigious history that brings us to these documents. I will try to piece it together as simply as I can.
In August 2016, during the Obama Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation and DWR began to develop a new operations plan for the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project and jointly requested reinitiation of consultation under the Endangered Species Act. Reclamation and DWR began working with NMFS and USFWS to develop new biological opinions.
In 2018, President Trump issued an executive order that did many things, including new requirements for the biological opinions and setting short timelines for completing them. In October 2019, those biological opinions were issued, which determined that proposed coordinated operations would not jeopardize threatened or endangered species or adversely modify their designated critical habitat (sometimes referred to as the 2019 biological opinions).
Shortly after, the state of California and others filed a lawsuit against those biological opinions, saying they lacked safeguards for protected species and their habitat in the Delta. At the same time, the state sought its own Incidental Take Permit for SWP operations under the California Endangered Species Act rather than seeking consistency through the biological opinions. That permit was issued in March of 2020. However, the lack of consistency with the federal biological opinions created operational challenges.
So in January 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, which reviewed regulatory actions taken during the Trump Administration and specifically listed the biological opinions to be reviewed.
In September 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requested to reinitiate the Endangered Species Act consultation with the stated goals being to support species viability, protect life history diversity, support operational flexibility, provide regulatory certainty, support science and monitoring, and create a single, adaptable, coordinated operation for the CVP and SWP.
New biological opinions are expected later this year once Reclamation has selected the alternative. The upcoming biological opinions have been developed with more agency and public involvement than in the past, including quarterly public meetings.
The draft EIS
The Bureau of Reclamation is proposing to alter operations of the Central Valley Project, primarily Shasta Dam operations. The draft EIS considers four alternatives and two ‘subalternatives’ as well as a no-action alternative for the operation of the CVP and the Delta facilities of the SWP.
The EIS analyzes the potential effect on the environment of the alternatives and addresses the review of the 2019 Biological Opinions required by President Biden’s Executive Order 13990, which includes reconciling CVP operating criteria with requirements of the SWP under the California Endangered Species Act.
The alternatives analyzed in the document are:
- No Action Alternative: continued operation of the CVP and SWP as described in the 2020 Record of Decision and subject to the 2019 Biological Opinions; DWR would operate the SWP consistent with CDFW’s 2020 Incidental Take Permit for the SWP. NEPA requires evaluation of the No Action Alternative.
- Alternative 1 is the operation to water right terms and conditions, including obligations for water quality control plan objectives for the Bay-Delta, water quality and minimum flows on CVP tributaries, and water right settlements. The needs of listed fish would rely upon habitat restoration and facility improvements completed since the 2008 and 2009 biological opinions rather than on additional flows.
- Alternative 2 are actions developed with the CDFW, DWR, NMFS, and USFWS to harmonize the operational requirements of CVP with California Endangered Species Act requirements for the SWP. It includes actions and approaches for the CVP and SWP identified by the state and federal fish agencies and the water supply and power generation objectives of Reclamation and DWR.
- Sub-Alternative 2B is derived from Alternative 2 but includes components developed by CDFW and DWR during DWR’s current Incidental Take Permit application process for the SWP.
- Alternative 3 is operating to increase Delta outflow up to 65% of unimpaired inflow and to meet carryover storage requirements in addition to other measures. This alternative was developed in coordination with the NGO community.
- Alternative 4 modifies Shasta and Folsom Dam operations for a different balance between water made available for diversion and storage to protect against subsequent dry years. It scales Delta operations based on effects to listed fish populations.
- Sub-Alternative 4B is derived from Alternative 4 but includes modifications developed by American River interested parties. Operations criteria on the American River vary from Alternative 4 through lower minimum flows and higher carryover storage. Unintended consequences outside the American River geography will be managed by real-time operations to ensure that implementation of Alternative 4B does not affect other Central Valley rivers in the action area other than the American River.
Reclamation has identified Alternative 2B as the preferred alternative, as it meets the identified purpose and needs of the project and also because NMFS and USFWS reached a consensus on this alternative. Alternative 2B incorporates the Delta criteria proposed in DWR’s ITP for the Delta facilities of the SWP to harmonize the CVP and SWP operations.
The EIS evaluates the potential positive and negative environmental impacts of each alternative. The Executive Summary summarizes the resources anticipated to be the most impacted, which include water quality, surface water, groundwater, salmon, steelhead, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, and the giant garter snake.
StoryMaps explores the operations of Shasta Dam under changing conditions
- Shasta StoryMap Chapter 1 – Operating Shasta in a New Climate: As the Bureau of Reclamation reinitiates of consultation on the long-term operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project under the Endangered Species Act, this multimedia presentation explains the amazing degree of complexity and challenges facing planners as they ponder the operation of Shasta Reservoir in a new paradigm.
- Shasta StoryMap Chapter 2 – Applied Science and Analysis of Alternatives: Chapter 2 of the Shasta StoryMap delves into the extensive and multitiered modeling tools used to help planners envision scenarios and propose operations alternatives designed to achieve water supply reliability in an environmentally sustainable manner.
- Shasta StoryMap Chapter 3 – Shasta and the long-term operation plan for the Central Valley Project: Achieving durability and equanimity for multiple needs. As Reclamation issues its draft environmental impact statement for the long-term operation of the CVP and SWP, this chapter looks at the incorporation of climate change conditions into the plan for operation and the efforts to protect winter-run Chinook salmon.
For more information:
Comments are due by September 9. Comments can be submitted by mail to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Attention Bay-Delta-Office, 801 I Street, Suite 140, Sacramento, CA 95814; via email: sha-MPR-BDO@usbr.gov; or at one of the five public meetings. Scroll down on this page for the dates, list of locations, and Zoom links.
Here is the Executive Summary extracted from the document.
Access the entire EIS document here.
Other media coverage …
Water operations long-term plan could limit supply
“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. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
C-WIN PRESS RELEASE: Bureau of Reclamation analysis shows some benefits of restoring California’s rivers but opts for status quo on groundwater
“A recently released draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the operation of a massive federal water project contains an alternative that would restore fish populations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions but fails to account for the requirements of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), an omission that could make the higher river flows needed by native fish infeasible. Max Gomberg, a water policy expert and Board Member for the California Water Impact Network, notes the DEIS is required to assess “reasonably foreseeable” impacts from laws and regulations. SGMA was adopted in 2014, and some overdrafted groundwater basins will soon be subject to state-mandated plans for reducing pumping. “Despite the well documented SGMA process, Reclamation used a groundwater model that does not include any pumping restrictions,” stated Gomberg. “As a result, the DEIS claims that agricultural users will pump massive volumes of groundwater to replace reductions in surface water deliveries.” … ” Continue reading this press release.
Experts discuss resource management and biological opinions at Pistachio Industry Insights Day
“At the first-ever Pistachio Industry Insights Day hosted by the American Pistachio Growers in July, a panel of experts discussed water security in California’s agricultural sector and the pending biological opinions set to come out in November. The panel, moderated by Don Wright, founder of Water Wrights, included Congressman John Duarte, Johnny Amaral, Chief Operating Officer of Friant Water Authority, Steve Blumenshine, Executive Director of California State University’s WATER (Water Advocacy Toward Education Research), William Bourdeau, President of Bourdeau Farms, and Lindsay Cederquist, Director of Water Resources at Maricopa Orchards. Congressman Duarte, representing both the Central Valley and the agricultural community, highlighted the pervasive issues of water and resource availability in California as part of a broader national trend. “First of all, I want to say, please look at California’s water issues on your farms and your communities up and down the state, affecting home prices, affecting food prices, affecting jobs, deleteriously affecting the environment, the air quality here in the valley — we’ve got a policy dust bowl in the brewing — in the context of resource abandonment nationwide,” Duarte said. … ” Read more from Valley Ag Voice.
