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CALFED Bay-Delta Authority
The CALFED Bay-Delta Authority, a cooperative effort among state and federal agencies and California's environmental, urban and agricultural communities, was initiated in 1995 to address environmental and water management problems associated with the Bay-Delta system. The Bay-Delta system is an intricate web of waterways created at the junction of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta. Critical to California's economy and ecology, the Bay-Delta has been the focus of competing interests virtually since the Gold Rush. The Bay-Delta is a critical habitat for 120 fish and wildlife species. It also serves as the hub of California's water distribution system, supplying drinking water to 20 million people and irrigation water to 4 million acres of farmland. As a result of these demands, the ecosystem has suffered greatly. Habitats are declining, and fish populations have plummeted with several species listed as threatened or endangered. The system no longer serves as a reliable source of high quality water and levees face an unacceptably high risk of breaching.
The CALFED Bay-Delta Program was established to reduce conflicts in the system by developing a sustainable, long-term solution to water management and environmental problems associated with the Bay-Delta system. CALFED is developing a comprehensive plan that will restore ecological health, improve water supply reliability for beneficial uses, improve water quality, and improve levee stability in the Bay-Delta estuary.
Programmatic EIS/EIR
As part of its analysis of potential Bay-Delta system solutions, CALFED released a draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) in March 1998. This document identifies -- on a broad or "programmatic" level -- potential impacts associated with the three alternatives being considered by the program. The alternatives are similar in that each comprehensively addresses the four main problems with the Bay-Delta system: ecosystem degradation, water supply reliability, water quality and levee system integrity. The main difference among the alternatives is how each would transport and store water within the Bay-Delta system. Release of the Revised Draft Programmatic EIS/EIR is expected in late Spring 1999, and the Final EIS/EIR by the end of 1999.
Draft Preferred Program Alternative
On December 18th, 1998, CALFED released a Revised Phase II Report which presents the draft preferred program alternative for restoring the estuary's ecological health, providing a more reliable water supply, and improving water quality. The preferred alternative describes actions that will occur during the first phase of implementation, called Stage1, which represents the first seven years of the program.
The Revised Phase II Report, as well as portions of the Draft Programmatic
EIS/EIR and other CALFED documents may be accessed at CALFED's Internet
site at http://calwater.ca.gov/ 
.
To order hard copies of these documents, please call CALFED at (916)
657-2666, or toll-free at (800) 700-5752.
For further information on US EPA's involvement in the CALFED Bay-Delta Authority, please contact Carolyn Yale (yale.carolyn@epa.gov)(415) 972-3482.