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