SCH Number 2022020528

Project Info

Title

West False River Drought Salinity Barrier

Description

The proposed project consists of a temporary barrier in the West False River that DWR may install up to two times between 2023 to 2032, including consecutive years, if drought conditions occur, for a period of up to 20 months. In the years where the barrier is installed, DWR would construct the barrier no sooner than April 1 and remove the barrier by November 30 of the subsequent year or the same year, when DWR determines the barrier is no longer needed based on hydrologic conditions. A barrier in West False River would be an effective tool to protect the beneficial uses of the interior Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) water by reducing saltwater intrusion while preserving the use of critically needed reservoir water. The proposed project would be constructed if DWR, in cooperation with other State and federal agencies including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, determines that drought conditions have reduced water storage in State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) facilities to critical levels, such that projected Delta outflow would not be sufficient to control increased salinity intrusion into the Delta, thereby worsening water quality and threatening the drinking and irrigation water supply and harming interior Delta agriculture. The approximately 800-foot-long barrier would consist of approximately 84,000 cubic yards of well-graded 18-inch minus embankment rock extending from the Jersey Island levee on the south side of West False River to the Bradford Island levee on the north side. This is the same location where a drought salinity barrier was constructed in 2015 and 2021/22. Depending on drought conditions, if the barrier is left in a subsequent year a notch may be constructed in the middle portion of the barrier in January after the installation year to allow for fish passage and vessel navigation through West False River and the notch would be refilled as early as the first week of April. DWR would also install three water quality monitoring stations in Woodward Cut (one monitoring station) and Railroad Cut (two monitoring stations) with the next installation of the drought salinity barrier. The stations would be installed on three new 12-inch-diameter steel pipe piles. The stations would be left in place after removal of the drought salinity barrier.

3 documents in project