CALIFORNIA SPORTFISHING PROTECTION ALLIANCE
"CONSERVING CALIFORNIA'S FISHERY RESOURCES"
1360 NEILSON STREET / BERKELEY / CA 94702-1116 / 510-526-4049
CSPA is working to directly affect governmental decision makers! We are working collectively with many other groups.
Save San Francisco Bay Association · Natural Resources
Defense Council ·
California League of Conservation Voters · League of Women
Voters of
California · Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
· Sierra
Club · American Rivers · Friends of the River ·
The Bay Institute of San
Francisco · California Trout · California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance ·
Planning and Conservation League · Mono Lake Committee
· CLEAN South Bay ·
Marin Conservation League · Golden Gate Audubon Society
· Santa Clara Valley
Audubon Society · Sierra Nevada Alliance · WaterKeepers
of Northern
California · Friends of the Trinity River · California
Urban Creeks Council ·
Save the American River Association
August 28, 2001
The Honorable Gray Davis
Governor's Office
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Westside Water Assurances and CVPIA Section 3406(b)(2)
Dear Governor Davis:
We appreciate your leadership and commitment to the CALFED
Bay-Delta program.
The CALFED Record of Decision issued last year represented a
delicate
balance. Maintenance of that balance will be critical to
the program's
ultimate success going forward. Among the commitments made in
the ROD, was
that the ecological health of the Bay-Delta estuary, and our dwindling
salmon
populations, would be restored to self-sustaining levels. Key
to that
commitment is full implementation of the Central Valley Project
Improvement
Act (CVPIA), specifically Section 3406(b)(2) which requires the
federal
government to allocate 800,000 acre-feet of water from the CVP
for fish,
wildlife and habitat restoration purposes each year.
For this reason, we write to request clarification regarding
your letter of
July 26, 2001 to U.S. Interior Secretary, Gale Norton. In
that letter you
cull out one of many issues addressed in the CALFED Record of
Decision,
achieving a 15 percent increase in south of Delta CVP contract
deliveries for
agricultural water users. As a threshold matter, we note
that unlike other
aspects of the ROD, this particular provision is not framed as
a
"commitment." Rather, it is specifically and quite
carefully described as an
"anticipation:"
It is also anticipated that implementation of [various] water
management
actions (some of which may require further specific environmental
review)
will result in normal years in an increase to CVP south-of-Delta
agricultural
water service contractors of 15 percent (or greater) of existing
contract
totals to 65 to 70 percent. This normal year supply improvement
may not be
achieved in all years due to annual hydrologic variability and
its impact on
carry over storage conditions. Substantial progress toward
implementation of
other program elements is also necessary. Water supplies
in dry years are
likely to be less than the anticipated amounts and more in above
normal
years. (ROD at 41.)
In contrast, the ROD contains a specific commitment to achievement
of
ecological restoration objectives:
The CALFED agencies will implement a comprehensive Ecosystem
Restoration
Program (ERP) throughout the Bay-Delta's watershed, consistent
with the
Strategic Plan for Ecosystem Restoration. The goal of the
ERP is to improve
aquatic and terrestrial habitats and natural processes to support
stable,
self-sustaining populations of diverse and valuable plant and
animal species
through an adaptive management process. Implementation of
the ERP includes
recovery species listed under the State and Federal Endangered
Species Acts.
(ROD at 35.)
In focusing on one provision of the Record of Decision, the
letter to
Secretary Norton raises certain concerns. There has been
a vigorous and
ongoing effort to identify where the water to meet the anticipated
15% water
delivery increase will come from. As you are aware, one
"tool" recommended
by some Central Valley Project water users is reopening the federal
government's final decision of October 1999 regarding the 800,000
acre-feet
of water dedicated to environmental restoration under the CVPIA.
Such a
reopening could in effect transfer water dedicated to the environment
under
federal law to a relatively small number of exporters. This
would be
inconsistent with clear commitments in the ROD. It would
not be in keeping
with the balance established by the ROD and would, to the contrary,
substantially undermine CALFED in several ways.
The 800,000 acre-feet of "(b)(2)" water is a central
and explicit part of the
CALFED baseline. If this minimum requirement is not met,
consistent with the
October 1999 decision and implementation commitments made in the
ROD,
CALFED's modeling and decisions regarding the Environmental Water
Account,
implementation of the Restoration Program and other elements would
be
undermined as well. Moreover, water taken from the restoration
effort would
impair CALFED's water supply reliability objectives by increasing
the
likelihood of new listings under the Endangered Species Act and
the need for
additional regulatory actions to avoid further harm to listed
fish species.
We concur with your observation that a strong state and federal
commitment is
essential to maintain broad-based support for the Program. This
commitment
must extend to the entire program including restoration, water
use efficiency
and other objectives. The ROD can succeed only if its elements
are
implemented in concert, rather than in conflict with one another.
We
appreciate fully the significance of the south of Delta delivery
increase
anticipated in the ROD. However, the price of this provision
cannot be
impairment of the ROD's restoration commitments, or pre-existing
legal
mandates to provide water necessary for a minimum level of ecological
health
and recovery.
Thank you for your consideration of our views. We are
confident that your
recent letter is not intended to indicate that your administration
no longer
supports the decisions and commitments in the ROD regarding implementation
of
the CVPIA. We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest
convenience,
and to working further with you and with many others to ensure
that CALFED's
ambitious objectives are achieved in all program areas.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Koehler Barry
Nelson
Save San Francisco Bay Association Natural Resources Defense Council
Sarah Rose Roberta
Borgonovo
California League of Conservation Voters League of Women Voters
of
California
Dan Sullivan S.
Elizabeth Burnbaum
Sierra Club American
Rivers
Elizabeth Reifsneider Gary
Bobker
Friends of the River The
Bay Institute of
San Francisco
Nick Di Croce Richard
Izmirian
California Trout California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance
Gerald H. Meral, PhD Frances
Spivy-Weber
Planning and Conservation League Mono
Lake Committee
Bob Raab Trish
Mulvey
Marin Conservation League CLEAN
South Bay
Arthur Feinstein Kelly
Crowley
Golden Gate Audubon Society Santa
Clara Valley Audubon Society
Laurel Ames Jonathan
Kaplan
Sierra Nevada Alliance WaterKeepers
of Northern
California
Byron Leydecker John
Steere
Friends of the Trinity River California
Urban Creeks
Council
Zeke Grader Alan
D. Wade
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Save the American River
Association
Associations