I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 856 

To provide flexibility for the operation of the Bureau of Reclamation C.W. 

‘‘Bill’’ Jones Pumping Plant and the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant 

of the State of California in times of drought emergency, to support 

the establishment of a fish hatchery program to preserve and restore 

the Delta Smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 4, 2009 

Mr. RADANOVICH (for himself, Mr. NUNES, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. 

MCCARTHY of California, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, and Mr. COSTA) introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To provide flexibility for the operation of the Bureau of 

Reclamation C.W. ‘‘Bill’’ Jones Pumping Plant and the 

Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant of the State of California in times of drought emergency, to support the 

establishment of a fish hatchery program to preserve 

and restore the Delta Smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘California Drought Al3 leviation Act of 2009’’. 

4 SEC. 2. TEMPORARY EXEMPTION DURING DROUGHT EMER5 GENCIES. 

6 (a) EXEMPTION FOR THE OPERATION OF PUMPING

7 PLANTS DURING DROUGHT EMERGENCIES.—Upon the 

8 declaration of a drought emergency by the Governor of 

9 California, the Secretary of the Interior shall make a writ10 ten determination as to the existence of a drought emer11 gency for the service areas of the Central Valley Project 

12 and the State Water Project. If the Secretary determines 

13 that a drought emergency exists for all or portions of the 

14 service areas of the Central Valley Project and the State 

15 Water Project, the Secretary shall temporarily exempt the 

16 operations of the Bureau of Reclamation C.W. ‘‘Bill’’ 

17 Jones Pumping Plant and the State of California Harvey 

18 O. Banks Pumping Plant from the prohibitions under the 

19 Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) 

20 against take of species listed as endangered species or 

21 threatened species or adverse modification of critical habi22 tat, until such time as the Secretary determines that the 

23 drought emergency conditions are alleviated. For the pur24 poses of section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 

25 (16 U.S.C. 1536), the action of pumping water from these 

26 plants shall not be considered discretionary. 


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1 (b) TIME FOR DETERMINATION OF DROUGHT EMER2 GENCY.—The Secretary shall make such a determination 

3 as to the existence of a drought emergency within the 30- 

4 day period beginning on the date of a gubernatorial 

5 drought emergency declaration referred to in subsection 

6 (a). If the Secretary fails to make such determination 

7 within such period with respect to any portion of a service 

8 area referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary is deemed 

9 to have made a written determination that a drought 

10 emergency exists for that portion. 

11 (c) REASONABLE AND PRUDENT MEASURES TO PRO12 TECT SPECIES.—The Secretary may include in any deter13 mination under subsection (a) that a drought emergency 

14 exists, reasonable and prudent measures for the protection 

15 of an endangered species or its critical habitat. Such rea16 sonable and prudent measures, or the failure of the Sec17 retary to prescribe such reasonable and prudent measures, 

18 shall not impede the ability of the C.W. ‘‘Bill’’ Jones 

19 Pumping Plant and the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant 

20 to supply sufficient water for municipal, industrial, and 

21 irrigation uses. The cost of reasonable and prudent meas22 ures prescribed by the Secretary under this subsection 

23 shall be borne by the United States and shall be nonreim24 bursable. 


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1 (d) NO EFFECT ON OTHER PROJECTS.—In carrying 

2 out this Act, the Secretary of the Interior and the Sec3 retary of Commerce shall not impose additional prescrip4 tions under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 

5 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) or the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 

6 791a et seq.) on any other water storage or conveyance 

7 facility on the San Joaquin River, the Sacramento River, 

8 or their tributaries. 

9 SEC. 3. CONTINUED OPERATION OF C.W. ‘‘BILL’’ JONES 

10 PUMPING PLANT DURING DROUGHT EMER11 GENCIES. 

12 If the Secretary of the Interior determines that a 

13 drought emergency exists for any portion of the Central 

14 Valley Project Service Area in California, the Secretary 

15 shall direct the Bureau of Reclamation to operate the 

16 C.W. ‘‘Bill’’ Jones Pumping Plant at a capacity consistent 

17 with the Coordinated Operation Agreement between the 

18 Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of 

19 Water Resources, and consistent with otherwise applicable 

20 laws (other than prohibitions under the Endangered Spe21 cies Act of 1973 from which the operation is exempt under 

22 subsection (a)) and existing water right, until such time 

23 as the Secretary determines that the drought emergency 

24 conditions are alleviated. 


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1 SEC. 4. DELTA SMELT HATCHERY PROGRAM. 

2 The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter, 

3 and shall seek to enter, into a cooperative agreement with 

4 the State of California to support the establishment of a 

5 fish hatchery program to preserve and restore the species 

6 Hypomesus transpacificus (popularly known as Delta 

7 Smelt) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The hatch8 ery program should be designed to establish a sustainable 

9 population of Hypomesus transpacificus sufficient to war10 rant the species’ removal from the lists published under 

11 section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 

12 U.S.C. 1533) and the State of California Endangered Spe13 cies Act. All Hypomesus transpacificus maintained, cul14 tured, introduced, or reintroduced under the program es15 tablished under this section are deemed to be members 

16 of any subspecies or population segment of Hypomesus 

17 transpacificus listed under section 4 of the Endangered 

18 Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533) for purposes of de19 termining whether such subspecies or population segment 

20 is a threatened species or endangered species under such 

21 section. 

Æ 


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