Bureau of Reclamation: California Water

California Water

Contact: Pete Lucero, (916) 978-5100

The California water supply is in crisis. The Administration is committed to long-term water supply improvements and environmental restoration in California. Reclamation is working in partnership with state and local entities to implement projects across the state. Activities range from Dam Safety at Folsom Dam to the Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project, which began operation in 2012 on the Sacramento River. The FY 2014 budget request includes significant funding for projects and activities across the state. California water is one of Reclamation’s highest priorities.

Central Valley Project

The 2014 request will fund operations, management, and improvements within the Central Valley Project (CVP). Over one-half of the amount provides for operation and maintenance of project facilities, including $17.4 million for the Replacements, Additions, and Extraordinary Maintenance program, for modernization, upgrade, and refurbishment of facilities throughout the Central Valley. The request also includes $16.0 million for the Trinity River Restoration program (after including $2 million in the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund) for the development of a comprehensive monitoring and adaptive management program for fishery restoration and construction of channel rehabilitation projects at various sites along the Trinity River. The FY 2014 budget also includes $38.2 million for continuing the implementation of the drainage management plan in CVP's West San Joaquin Division (San Luis Unit).

Central Valley Project Restoration Fund

The Central Valley Project Restoration Fund was authorized in the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Title XXXIV of P.L. 102-575. This Fund provides funding from project beneficiaries for habitat restoration, improvement and acquisition, and other fish and wildlife restoration activities in the Central Valley Project (CVP) area of California. Revenues are derived from payments by project beneficiaries and from donations.

Funding will be used for protection, restoration, and management of aquatic and riparian habitats throughout the Central Valley, water supplies for wildlife refuges, and water acquisition and other activities to benefit anadromous fish consistent with performance goals, criteria, and recommendations in the 2009, Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Program Activity Report (CPAR) and other associated documents. Annual workplans coordinated by Fish and Wildlife Service and Reclamation, in conjunction with Central Valley water users, hydropower representatives, and other interested groups, continues to help ensure efficient and effective implementation of the Act.

California Bay-Delta Restoration

The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta (Delta) is a regional, state, and national treasure. It is an integral part of an ecosystem dependent on more than 750 wildlife species and more than 120 species of fish. As a migratory corridor, the Delta hosts two-thirds of the state's salmon and nearly half of the waterfowl and shorebirds along the Pacific flyway. The Bay-Delta system is critical to California's economy because the two rivers that flow into the Bay-Delta provide potable water for two-thirds of California's homes and businesses and irrigate more than 7 million acres of farmland on which 45 percent of the nation's fruits and vegetables are grown, part of a $28.0 billion agricultural industry. The Federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project play a central, coordinated role in the water management of the Bay-Delta system and throughout California. The CALFED Bay-Delta Program was established in May 1995 to develop a comprehensive long-term plan to address the complex and interrelated problems in the Delta region, tributary watersheds, and delivery areas.

The Program's focus is on conserving and restoring the health of the ecosystem and improving water management. On December 15, 2010, the Interim Federal Action Plan Status Update for the California Bay-Delta: 2011 and Beyond was issued by the six Federal agencies. The updated report urges continued progress toward completion of the California Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and supports major elements of the plan as a promising means of addressing the critical needs of both the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the state's water delivery structure. The FY 2014 budget requests funding actions that the support the Interim Federal Action Plan. This is the final year of funding authorization. Language is proposed to extend the expiration date to September 30, 2018.

Lower Colorado River Operations Program

The 2014 budget request provides $9.7 million for the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, to fulfill the role of "water master" for the lower Colorado River. The Colorado River Operations Program includes river operations, water service contracting and repayment, decree accounting, and fulfilling the requirements of the Secretary's role as water master.

The request also includes $18.2 million to continue development and implementation of the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (MSCP). This unique partnership is designed to provide 50 years of ESA coverage and will conserve 26 species along the lower Colorado River from Lake Mead to Mexico, including the endangered razorback sucker, bonytail chub, southwestern willow flycatcher, and Yuma clapper rail. This program is cost shared 50/50 with the non-Federal partners.

Safety of Dams at Folsom Dam

The FY 2014 budget request continues major construction activities at Folsom Dam to address risks to public safety from potential structural failure due to seismic conditions and possible overtopping of the dam during hydrologic events. The total cost of the dam safety modifications at Folsom Dam and appurtenant facilities is estimated to exceed $300 million and is projected for completion in 2017. Folsom Dam has been identified as Reclamation's top safety priority. FY 2014 funding is $24.6 million.

San Joaquin River Restoration Fund

The Reclamation request includes $26.0 million in discretionary appropriations to continue implementation of the San Joaquin River Settlement (Settlement) in NRDC, et al., v. Rodgers, et al. Reclamation's efforts to implement the Settlement are conducted in close coordination with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service and funding for these agencies efforts is included in the Reclamation request. The Settlement is being implemented consistent with the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, Public Law 111-11.

The Settlement and San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act resolved long-standing disputes related to water deliveries and fisheries concerns on the San Joaquin River. The Settlement includes two primary goals – restoration and water management. The restoration goal includes the restoration and maintenance of fish populations in "good condition" in the main stem of the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam to the confluence of the Merced River, including naturally reproducing and self-sustaining populations of salmon and other fish. The water management goal includes the reduction or avoidance of adverse water supply impacts to all of the Friant Division long-term contractors that may result from the flows provided for in the Settlement.

Discretionary funding in FY 2014 will be used to fund construction of a fish screen on the Arroyo Canal to prevent entrainment of juvenile Chinook salmon in the canal and modifications to Sack Dam to allow for fish passage around the structure. Arroyo Canal and Sack Dam are owned and operated by Henry Miller Reclamation District #2131. The dam and canal are the sole diversion and conveyance facilities for the District which provides water to approximately 47,000 acres of highly productive agricultural lands in the San Joaquin Valley, along with moving water to Federal and state wildlife refuges and private duck clubs.

Mandatory funds will be used for continued planning, engineering, environmental compliance, fishery management, water operations, and public involvement activities related to the restoration and water management goals in the Settlement. Significant activities planned include the continued release of initial flows, termed Interim Flows, and the beginning of long-term flow releases, termed Restoration Flows, from Friant Dam and implementation of associated biological and physical monitoring and reporting program. As part of this effort, Reclamation plans to continue implementation of a comprehensive groundwater seepage management and monitoring program, including the implementation of seepage mitigation projects.

Last Updated: April 18, 2013