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Delta water agencies challenge Bay Delta Conservation Plan process

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 22, 2009 at 8:22 am

From Jacqueline McDonald of Somach, Simmons & Dunn:

On April 13, 2009, the Central Delta Water Agency and South Delta Water Agency (Delta Water Agencies) filed a Complaint for Declaratory Relief, Injunctive Relief, and Mandamus challenging the preliminary actions of various state and federal agencies, urban and agricultural water purveyors, agricultural interests, and environmental groups related to the collaborative Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process. (Central Delta Water Agency et al. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service et al., United States Eastern District Court, Case No. 09-CV-01003-JAM-GGH.) In recent years, politicians, state and federal agencies, and various stakeholders have advocated the BDCP process as a means to improve the failing San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) ecosystem and increase the reliability of water supplies exported through the Delta, including consideration of a potential isolated conveyance facility.

Bay Delta Conservation Plan

In 2006, in response to increasing and anticipated future water shortages related to the rapid decline of the Delta ecosystem, a newly formed BDCP “steering committee” commenced public discussions to create a habitat conservation plan pursuant to section 10 of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). This plan could potentially also satisfy the more stringent requirements for a conservation plan under the California National Community Conservation Planning Act (NCCPA). As such, the BDCP would provide coverage for the incidental take of state and federally listed threatened and endangered species affected by existing or potentially modified United States Bureau of Reclamation Central Valley Project (CVP) and California Department of Water Resources State Water Project (SWP) operations in the Delta. Since the initial meetings in 2006, additional stakeholders have joined the steering committee in investing considerable time, money, and energy analyzing options to improve the Delta ecosystem and increase water supply reliability. Throughout 2007, the steering committee evaluated alternative conceptual water conveyance and ecosystem restoration opportunities for the Delta. One of the water conveyance options proposed and subsequently selected for consideration was an isolated conveyance facility to move water supplies around, rather than through, the Delta.

Get more background and analysis from Jacqueline McDonald of Somach, Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.

April 22, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Delta Conservation Plan

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