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CVPIA Water Down for the Count
California’s elaborate water system has been called everything from an aqueduct empire to a mirage. These days, it’s looking disturbingly like a house of cards.
On February 5, a federal judge reversed a federal policy on counting water allocated for environmental purposes in the Bay-Delta system. Although this sounds like a technicality, the decision reduces by 200,000-300,000 acre-feet the amount of water available for fish and wildlife.
The lawsuit brought by the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority questioned the definition of what is generally known as "B2 water" — the 800,000 acre-feet of water allocated to fish and wildlife under the 1992 Central Valley Protection Improvement Act or CVPIA. Under a Clinton administration policy, water released from a reservoir for environmental purposes was not charged as B2 water in high rainfall years when the reservoir filled up again. This left more water available for the environment. Now that water — called reset water — will be charged against the environmental side. A number of other technical questions related to this kind of "checkbook balancing" of water allocation were also decided by the judge.
The B2 water, as counted under the Clinton policy, is an integral part of the CALFED program, the multi-billion dollar effort to balance the needs of water users and wildlife. The larger amount of water was included in sophisticated computer modeling that provided baselines ensuring protection for salmon and other fish under CALFED, says Tina Swanson of the Bay Institute.
"What this change means is that a substantial portion of CALFED’s foundational or baseline level of protection has been reduced," says Swanson. "That now has a number of other implications."
One of the key questions is whether wildlife management agencies can now provide the "assurances" to water users that are another key part of CALFED. CALFED set up a program called the Environmental Water Account, which allows officials to buy and bank water for fish. With that program in place, water users are assured that there will be no cutbacks in their water supply for environmental reasons.
But officials decided on the size of the Environmental Water Account based on their expectations that CVPIA water would be available in quantities determined by the Clinton policy. Now there is a greater burden on the Environmental Water Account. In addition, about 10 percent of the EWA is supplied directly by water allocated under CVPIA.
This year, wildlife agencies were able to provide assurances to water users that their water supplies would remain intact. But that’s no guarantee that there will be enough water in coming years.
Patrick Wright, CALFED’s executive director, says the size of the EWA may have to be increased. "There’s a short term answer and a long-term answer," Wright said. "The short-term answer is that it is possible this year to provide regulatory assurances, even with the loss of water. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is simply the fact that the agencies were so conservative this year in using their assets.
"But the question is what about next year and the following year," Wright continued. "I think there’s a common understanding about the agencies that we need to reevaluate the Environmental Water Account and figure out whether, given this loss of water, we need to increase its size."
Increasing the Environmental Water Account may be difficult. So far, CALFED reauthorization has hit a roadblock in Congress and federal funding for CALFED is not meeting projections. But there may be alternatives to simply purchasing water, Wright says. These include expanding pumping capacity at the State Water Project and developing groundwater storage projects south of the Delta.
Cynthia Koehler of Environmental Defense, lead attorney for the environmental coalition that brought the lawsuit, expects the coalition to appeal the court’s decision. "Congress directed the government to reallocate 800,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water to the environment. That needs to be real water, not paper water."
Koehler is concerned that the Bush administration, which refused to allow U.S. Fish & Wildlife to testify on behalf of the water-counting policy, may not join in the appeal.
For Dan Nelson, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, the recent decision is a vindication. Nelson believes that the U.S. Department of Interior policy, which came out in 1999, violated the spirit of the 1994 Bay-Delta Accord, in which his organization was a participant. He believes that the policy allowed water managers to use more than the legally mandated 800,000 acre-feet for environmental purposes.
"I really do think our folks haven’t been treated fairly," Nelson said.
Nelson says CALFED officials were aware of the court case and should not have counted on CVPIA water in making baseline projections. Despite their courtroom challenges to this essential part of the program, the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which represents 32 groups of water users in the Central Valley, is still participating actively in the CALFED process. "We still think there’s merit," Nelson said.
Contact: Tina Swanson (530)756-9021 or Dan Nelson (209)826-9696 SZ
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