Document Description
Note: Per Lead Agency, NOD withdrawn (see attachment).
Project planning process started in 2006 and was initially proposed as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. In Dec. 2013, a draft environmental impact report/environmental impact statement (EIR/EIS) to analyze the BDCP and its alternatives was released. In July 2015, the DWR and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the lead agencies under CEQA and NEPA, respectively, added three sub-alternatives to the BDCP that would update the SWP without the large scale conservation efforts that where included in the BDCP. DWR and Reclamation's preferred alternative under the NEPA with the publication of the RDEIR/SDEIS. It is now the project being approved by DWR. The project involves the construction of new north Delta intake structures with state-of-the-art fish screens that, when coupled with dual conveyance, will increase water supply reliability and align water operations to better reflect natural seasonal flow patterns. These intakes will reduce the DWP's and CVP's ongoing reliance on existing diversion facilities located at the far southern part of the Delta, allow for greater operational flexibility to protect fish, and capture water during high flow events when pumping in the south Delta would otherwise be restricted. Alternative 4A also includes habitat restoration commensurate with CEQA's mitigation requirements.
Under the Project, Alternative 4A, water would primarily be conveyed from the north Delta to the south Delta through pipelines/tunnels. Water would be diverted from the Sacramento River through three fish-screened intakes on the east bank of the Sacramento River between Clarksburg and Courtland. Water would travel from the fish-screened intakes through a gravity fed tunnel system to reach pumping plants at the expanded Clifton Court Forebay, feeding into the Banks and Jones Pumping Plants. Alternative 4A would include the continued use of the SWP/CVP south Delta export facilities.
CA WaterFix is one element of Governor Brown's CA Water Action Plan, which seeks to bolster regional self-sufficiency in water supplies, reduce reliance on the Delta, recover native fish populations and, overall, bring reliability, restoration, and resilience to CA's water supply systems.
