Opinion ID: 3066157
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Text: “The history of California water development and distribution is a story of supply and demand. California’s critical water problem is not a lack of water but uneven distribution of water resources.” United States v. State Water Res. Control Bd., 182 Cal. App.3d 82, 98 (Cal. Ct. App. 1986). California’s Central Valley comprises some of the most productive farmland in the world. Extending 450 miles from north to south, and averaging 100 miles wide east to west, the Central Valley includes two principal rivers: The Sacramento River begins in the northern part of the valley, runs south past Sacramento, and is fed by the Feather and American Rivers. The San Joaquin River begins in the Sierra Nevadas, northeast of Fresno, runs west and northwest into SAN LUIS V. JEWELL 27 the Central Valley, and is fed by smaller rivers, including the Calaveras, Chowchilla, Fresno, Kings, Merced, Mokelumne, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne Rivers. The two rivers converge in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and form an estuary that joins Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Although over 70 percent of California’s water originates north of Sacramento, more than 70 percent of the state’s demand is in the south. The water from this region supplies irrigation for seven million acres of agriculture and more than twenty million people, nearly half of California’s residents. See Where Does California’s Water Come From?, Aquafornia, The California Water News Blog, Aug. 13, 2008, 9:29 a.m., http://www.aquafornia.com/index.php/where-doescalifornias-water-come-from/. See generally Dugan v. Rank, 372 U.S. 609, 612–13 (1963); United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U.S. 725, 728–29 (1950); San Luis & DeltaMendota Water Auth. v. United States, 672 F.3d 676, 681–83 (9th Cir. 2012); Westlands Water Dist. v. United States, 337 F.3d 1092, 1095–96 (9th Cir. 2003); In re Bay-Delta Programmatic Envtl. Impact Report Coordinated Proceedings, 184 P.3d 709, 715–17 (Cal. 2008); State Water Res. Control Bd., 182 Cal. App.3d at 97–100. In an effort to manage the increasing and conflicting demands placed on the water flowing through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, California and the United States have embarked on two massive projects. First, in 1933, California proposed the Central Valley Project (CVP), a plan to transfer water from the Sacramento River to water-deficient areas in the San Joaquin Valley and from the San Joaquin River to the southern regions of the Central Valley. State Water Res. Control Bd., 182 Cal. App.3d at 98–100. Reclamation took over the project in 1935, and it is now “the largest federal water management project in the 28 SAN LUIS V. JEWELL United States.” Central Delta Water Agency v. United States, 306 F.3d 938, 943 (9th Cir. 2002). The CVP consists of a series of dams, including Shasta, Folsom, and Nimbus Dams; 21 reservoirs; 11 hydropower plants; and 500 miles of canals and aqueducts. In re Bay-Delta, 184 P.3d at 716 n.1. In 1992, Congress adopted the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), Pub. L. No. 102-575, 106 Stat. 4706, which Congress described as designed “to achieve a reasonable balance among competing demands for use of Central Valley Project water, including the requirements of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial and power contractors.” CVPIA, § 3402(f), 106 Stat. at 4706. In 1951, California approved what is known as the State Water Project (SWP), the largest state-built water project in the United States. San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Auth., 672 F.3d at 683. Managed by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), “[t]he SWP serves the domestic water needs of approximately two-thirds of all Californians,” principally in Southern California. In re Bay-Delta, 184 P.3d at 716. SWP consists of “21 dams and reservoirs, . . . five power plants, 16 pumping plants, and 662 miles of aqueduct.” Id. at 716 n.2. In 1994, eight state agencies and 10 federal agencies formed the CALFED Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) to address comprehensively the challenges of managing the Bay-Delta estuary. Id. at 717. The CVP and SWP each operate a major station for pumping water from the Bay-Delta to canals and aqueducts that will carry the water to the south. Both plants are located near Tracy, California, and together they reverse the natural flow of the southern part of the Bay-Delta through two distributaries of the San Joaquin, Old, and Middle Rivers, referred to as “OMR.” San Luis & Delta-Mendota, 760 F. SAN LUIS V. JEWELL 29 Supp. 2d at 863. The CVP operates the Jones Pumping Plant, capable of diverting 4,600 cubic feet per second (cfs). Nearby, the SWP operates the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant, with a capacity of 10,300 cfs, although it generally operates at or below 6,680 cfs. BiOp at 82, 108, 159–60. The plants have been constructed with louvers that allow water to pass through into the pumping plant, but will prevent most fish from entering the plants. The process of the fish entering the plants, known as entrainment, traps some 52 different species of fish. BiOp at 67. The salvaged fish are hauled in trucks injected with oxygen and released at sites on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. BiOp at 67, 145. Over a recent 15-year period, more than 110 million fish were salvaged from the Jones and Banks facility. BiOp at 160. This number, however, greatly underestimates the number of fish actually entrained at the facilities, because fish less than 30 mm (1.2 inches) are not efficiently collected at the louvers. BiOp at 160–61. Smaller fish, especially those in the juvenile or larval stage, are killed in the pumps. BiOp at 210. Those that are salvaged frequently do not survive the salvage process. BiOp at 338. The Colorado River and the SWP have historically been the major supply of water for southern California. As the result of an interstate agreement signed in 2003, California will receive less water from the Colorado River. Quantification Settlement Agreement, San Diego Water Authority, http://www.sdcwa.org/quantification-settlementagreement (last visited July 29, 2013). As a consequence, southern California has sought more water from SWP. BiOp at 89–90. Increased demand for water from SWP has had a predictable effect on the water flowing into the Bay-Delta. As more water is diverted from the rivers that feed the Delta into the southern Central Valley, the salinity of the Delta and 30 SAN LUIS V. JEWELL its estuaries increases along with the threat to the species that thrive there. The Delta generally describes a large lowland area with a labyrinth of natural channels in and around the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. . . . The major factor affecting water quality in the Delta is saltwater intrusion. Delta Lands, situated at or below sea level, are constantly subject to ocean tidal action. Salt water entering from San Francisco Bay extends well into the Delta, and intrusion of the saline tidal waters is checked only by the natural barrier formed by fresh water flowing out from the Delta. State Water Resources Control Bd., 182 Cal. App.3d at 107. Since the 1970s, Reclamation and a raft of state agencies have worked to mitigate the effects of increased water salinity on Suisun Bay resulting from the upstream diversion of water that would otherwise naturally flow through Suisun. BiOp at 112–13. Salinity levels in Suisun Bay are highly sensitive to diversion from the Delta. Two related standards are used to describe the salinity of the Bay-Delta. The first is the Low Salinity Zone or LSZ. BiOp at 147. The LSZ is the transition point between the freshwater of the inland rivers and brackish water flowing eastward from San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, and includes water ranging in salinity from 0.5 parts per thousand to six parts per thousand. BiOp at 191. The second is referred to as X2. X2 represents the point in the Bay-Delta at SAN LUIS V. JEWELL 31 which the salinity is less than two parts per thousand. See Westlands Water Dist. v. Dep’t of Interior, 376 F.3d 853, 876 (9th Cir. 2004). The LSZ, which encompasses a larger region of the Bay-Delta, is generally centered around X2. Together, these regions are largely determined by Bay-Delta outflow, which is the difference between the inflow and the water exported. The agencies use X2 as a marker for the LSZ as well as a habitat indicator for fish and as a regulatory standard. BiOp at 149–50, 236; San Luis & Delta Mendota, 760 F. Supp. 2d at 864 & nn.4–5. They express the location of X2 as its distance in kilometers east of the Golden Gate Bridge, Westlands Water Dist., 376 F.3d at 876.