California WaterFix

Project Background

The California WaterFix (CWF) was a proposal to modify the point of diversion for the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and operate existing south Delta facilities in coordination with these new facilities. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) coordinate the operation of the CVP and the SWP, respectively, and were also the lead agencies for the CWF.

Reclamation and DWR wrote a Biological Assessment (BA) that summarized the effects of the proposed actions in CWF on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed species and their designated critical habitats. NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluated the effects of the proposed CWF on species listed under the Federal ESA and their designated critical habitats and included our analyses in final biological opinions, developed in response to the BA.

NOAA Fisheries’ final biological opinion concluded that construction and operations of CWF as proposed in 2017 would not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, threatened spring-run Chinook salmon, threatened North American green sturgeon, threatened California Central Valley steelhead and endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales, which depend heavily on Chinook salmon for food.

The biological opinions recognized the uncertainty inherent in the dynamic ecology of the Delta and include a strong adaptive management component, where research, monitoring, and real-time tracking of fish populations and other factors will guide future operation of the new intakes.

Resources

Biological Assessment

Biological Assessment for the California WaterFix, July 2016

NOAA Fisheries correspondence on CA WaterFix

• Biological Opinion for the California WaterFix Project in Central Valley, California
• Appendix A1 - August 2016 Description of the Proposed Action
• Appendix A2 - June 2017 Description of the Proposed Action
• Appendix B - Rangewide Status of the Species and Critical Habitat
• Appendix C - Section 2.5.1 Supporting Tables and Figures
• Appendix D - Modeling Analysis of Habitat Restoration
• Appendix E - Analysis of UPP Using Perry Survival Model
• Appendix F - Evaluating the Effect of the North Delta Diversion on Flow Reversals and Entrainment of Juvenile Chinook Salmon into Georgiana Slough and the Delta Cross Channel
  The final version of this document, which has published after completion of the biological opinion, can be found here https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20181028.
• Appendix G - Summary of Survival Methods
  The final version of this document, which was published after completion of the biological opinion, can be found here https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20181078.
• Appendix H - Model Description for the Sacramento River Winter-run Chinook Salmon Life Cycle Model