LegiStorm

Summary:

For most of the last 20 years, some water contractors in California's Central Valley have received less than their full contract water supplies from federal and state water resource facilities. Although such allocations are in part the result of the prior appropriation doctrine in western water law and are consistent with the expectation of a "junior" water user in times of drought, tensions over water delivery reliability have been exacerbated by reductions in deliveries even in non-drought years. Such reductions are significant because much of the California urban and agricultural economy operates under junior water rights, and reductions in water allocations can cause significant disruption and economic losses, particularly in drought years. At the same time, fish populations throughout the Central Valley have dramatically declined due to water diversions and other factors, and this has been accompanied by significant losses for fishing communities and others dependent on fish and wildlife resources. The state and federal governments have been working to address water supply reliability and ecosystem issues through the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP); however, the plan is not complete and remains controversial. On February 5, 2014, the House enacted H.R. 3964, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act. It is similar to a bill in the 112th Congress that also passed the House (H.R. 1837, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Reliability Act). The bill would, among many other things, amend the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 (CVPIA) to potentially reduce some water allocations for fish and wildlife and redirect them to other purposes (i.e., agricultural and municipal and industrial uses). It would preempt "any" (including state and federal) law pertaining to operation of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and California's State Water Project (SWP). It would also substitute for those laws operational principles from a 1994 interim agreement, known as the Bay-Delta Accord, which some believe would provide more reliable water supplies for federal and state water contractors. It would also repeal certain components of a 2010 law authorizing a settlement agreement for the San Joaquin River, and would make numerous other changes. Proponents of H.R. 3964 argue that implementation of the CVPIA and the San Joaquin River Settlement, coupled with state and federal environmental laws (e.g., the federal Endangered Species Act, its state equivalent, and state regulations implementing the federal Clean Water Act), have compounded the impact of drought on water deliveries. Opponents argue that the bill would harm the environment and resource-dependent local economies, particularly coastal communities. Some also argue that it would undermine efforts to resolve environmental and water supply reliability issues through development of the BDCP. Issues for Congress include the extent to which the bill changes decades of federal and state law, including state and federal environmental laws, and at what benefit and cost. For example, there are tradeoffs embedded in the bill's preemption of state water law, including fish and wildlife protections, as a means to increase the water deliveries to some irrigation contractors and municipalities. These changes might benefit water contractors in some areas, but potentially reduce environmental protections and improvements and the industries they support (e.g., recreational and fishing industries) in others. Congress may also consider the potential extent to which the bill would relieve water supply shortages, particularly in drought years. While much attention has been paid to the effects of federal and state environmental laws on reductions in water supplies south of the Bay-Delta, many factors affect pumping restrictions and the overall water allocation regime for CVP contractors. How H.R. 3964 would in practice affect these factors is uncertain.