Opinion ID: 2763492
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State Water Project and the Central

Text: Valley Project Since the early part of the twentieth century, land owners, local irrigation districts, and the federal and California state governments have pumped fresh water out of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers (and their tributaries) to irrigate the agricultural lands of the Central Valley and to provide drinking water to the people of California. See Cent. Delta Water Agency v. United States, 306 F.3d 938, 943 (9th Cir. 2002). California governs this pumping through the State Water Project (“SWP”) and the federal government does so through the Central Valley Project (“CVP”) (collectively, “the Projects”). The SWP is the largest state-built water project in the United States. Delta Smelt, 747 F.3d at 594. It consists of “21 dams and reservoirs, . . . five power plants, 16 pumping plants, and 662 miles of aqueduct.” Id. (internal citations omitted). The California Department of Water Resources (“DWR”)—Plaintiff-in-Intervention here—oversees operations of the SWP. Id. The CVP is “the largest federal water management project in the United States.” Cent. Delta Water Agency, 306 F.3d at 943. Congress initially authorized it in the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1935. Id. It comprises a series of dams, “21 reservoirs, 11 hydropower plants, and 500 miles of canals and aqueducts.” Delta Smelt, 747 F.3d at 594. Reclamation oversees operations of the CVP. The CVP is partially governed by the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (“CVPIA”), id. at 594, which Congress passed in 1992 to “achieve a reasonable balance among competing demands for use of Central Valley Project water, including the 26 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE requirements of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial and power contractors.” Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Pub L. No. 102–575, 106 Stat. 4706 (1992). Together, the Projects provide water to more than 25 million agricultural and domestic consumers in central and southern California. They do so, in part, by pumping fresh water out of the Delta using the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant (“Banks pumping plant”) and the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant (“Jones pumping plant”), both of which are located near Tracy, California.3 The Banks pumping plant is capable of pumping water at the rate of 10,300 cubic feet per second (“cfs”), but it generally operates closer to 6,680 cfs. See OCAP BA at 2-2. The Jones pumping plant has a maximum pumping capability of 4,600 cfs. See id. The plants operate by lifting water from the Delta using motorgenerated pumps.4 They pump the water into pipes that deliver it into the California Aqueduct or the Delta-Mendota Canal, respectively. See Jones & Banks Pumping Facilities. From there, the Projects deliver the water to agricultural users in the Central Valley and domestic users in central and southern California. See id.; see also Fig. B. 3 See Biological Assessment on the Continued Long-term Operations of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/ocapBA_051608.html 2-1 (last visited Oct. 20, 2014) [hereinafter “OCAP BA”]; see also Fig. A. 4 Central Valley Project’s C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant and Tracy Fish Collection Facility, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (July 2012), http://www.usbr.gov/mp/PA/docs/fact_sheets/Jones_Pumping_Plant.pdf [hereinafter “Jones and Banks Pumping Facilities”]. SAN LUIS V. LOCKE 27 The Projects also control the volume of water flowing through the Central Valley’s rivers by prescribing releases from upstream reservoirs, which operate as water storage facilities. Releases from CVP/SWP reservoirs cool water temperatures, reduce the salinity of the Delta, provide flood control, improve volume for fish habitat and migration, and supply additional water for agricultural use. See OCAP BA at 2-5. Fig. B. CVP and SWP Map.5 5 Central Valley Project, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Central+Valley+ Project (last visited Oct. 21, 2014 8:55 a.m.); James Nickles et al., California’s BAY-DELTA: USGS Science Supports Decision Making, http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3032/ (last visited Oct. 21, 2014, 9:00 a.m.). 28 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE