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CALFED BAY-DELTA PROGRAM

Revised February 1998

Westlands wholeheartedly supports the Bay-Delta Accord and is actively working to ensure the success of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, developed through the Accord. Westlands is urging the CALFED program to carefully balance the need for a long-term, reliable water supply for all water users with environmental restoration and urban water quality improvements. The CALFED program must treat all water needs fairly. We must "get better together."

• In addition to environmental restoration and water quality issues, CALFED's focus should also include real fixes that will restore reliable water deliveries to farmers and water districts with federal and state contracts for water service. Federal regulations have historically limited water deliveries to farmers and communities south of the Delta. Jobs and economies of the San Joaquin Valley depend on these water contracts.
• Westlands farmers have an annual contract with the U.S. for 1,150,000 acre-feet of CVP water until 2007. Despite this legal obligation, the U.S. is failing to provide Westlands with its full contract supply -- in seven of the last eight years. Future fixes to the Bay-Delta problem should be aimed at restoring south-of- Delta agricultural water contractors' water supplies, including Westlands'.
• CALFED should provide assurances to protect existing water rights and ecosystem needs, and to honor commitments and agreements for the long-term.
• Affordable and equitable solutions must be based on "good science," with all stakeholders paying according to the benefits received. Environmental restoration benefits the public at large and should be funded accordingly. Simply throwing millions of acre-feet of water at the problems without biological and ecological justification is not reasonable management of a limited resource, nor is it the solution.
• Surface and groundwater storage facilities in various sizes and locations are critical to a Bay-Delta solution. Added storage north and south of the Delta will provide more flexibility in meeting agricultural, urban and environmental needs. Removing thousands of acres of cropland from food production is not the answer to reducing surface water demand. The potential environmental impacts of groundwater overdraft in the San Joaquin Valley, as well as the loss of farmland already occurring from increasing urbanization, cannot be ignored.

Issue Summary

The 1994 Bay-Delta Accord marked a turning point in how California operates its water system, allocates its water supply and develops water policy. The historic agreement established a framework for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, comprised of federal and state agencies that are working on long-term solutions to address the myriad problems in the Bay-Delta. The Accord, which was due to expire at the end of 1997, was granted a one-year extension last December, allowing the additional time necessary to complete the CALFED planning process. The mission of the CALFED program is to develop a long-term, comprehensive plan that will restore the ecological health and improve water management for beneficial uses of the Bay-Delta system.

Diverse water interests throughout the state have been working together as the Ag-Urban Policy Group to analyze potential options, make recommendations to CALFED and address the needs of various regions in California. The Ag-Urban Policy Group, of which Westlands is an active participant, believes there are four principles that must anchor an enduring CALFED program:

• Get Better Together - water supplies for environmental, domestic and agricultural uses should be improved simultaneously.

• We Need A Fair Deal for All Californians - a program that meets the needs of all the regions in California. Simply reducing the reliability of water supply for one region to increase reliability for another is not the answer.
• Affordable and Real Benefits - CALFED is about making decisions that meet ecosystem, urban and agricultural needs by determining the amount and quality of these water needs, and by developing cost-effective and affordable solutions that will be long-lasting, significant and real.
• Near-and Long-Term Benefits - because water needs are increasing so rapidly, CALFED must include programs to improve supplies in the near-term while the long-term alternative is being implemented. We should be better together, step-by-step.

Three Proposed Alternatives are under review in a draft EIR/EIS, due out the end of February. The draft document will identify 12 alternatives, with details on three specific proposed alternatives. From these, a preferred alternative will be "highlighted" in the draft document, but THE preferred alternative won't be announced until June.

• Alternative One:

Re-operation of existing water system, with up to 6.25-million acre-feet of additional storage upstream and downstream of the Delta. Operable flow control barriers are considered in the South Delta area and large fish screens would be installed by the state and federal water project pumping plants in the Delta.

• Alternative Two:

Enlarged east-Delta channel for improved flow of better-quality water to project pumps; screens and barriers to protect fish; up to 6.25-million AF of additional storage upstream and downstream of Delta.

• Alternative Three:

Enlarged east-Delta channel and additional open-channel isolated facility; up to 6.25-million AF of additional storage upstream and downstream of Delta; screens and barriers to protect fish. This would be the preferred alternative for Westlands, IF the costs are affordable and balanced, and IF assurances are given to restore and protect our CVP contract supply.

The enormous impact of the current environmental demands on the CVP cannot be understated. The potential of further demands on the system by significantly reallocating CVP supplies through the Bay-Delta Accord and other programs must be examined carefully.

The federal government has not demonstrated administrative flexibility in the execution of the environmental obligations so as to minimize the adverse water supply impacts. Flexibility, reasonableness and leadership in moving forward under the Bay-Delta Accord are critical.

Current Status

President Clinton signed legislation in 1996 that would authorize appropriations of $430 million in matching federal funds toward the environmental restoration of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. The funds would provide the federal share of costs for ecosystem restoration projects under the Bay-Delta Accord and the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. The proposed 1998 federal budget contains $143 million, the second installment of the $430 million commitment to the CALFED Program.

The $430 million commitment was the product of an unprecedented effort by urban and agricultural water interests, governmental entities and environmentalists to obtain federal cost-sharing for Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration efforts. The federal money, if appropriated, would be available in fiscal years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Federal appropriations were contingent on passage of Proposition 204, a $995-million general obligation bond measure approved by voters in November 1996 for Bay-Delta restoration and other water programs.