BILL NUMBER: AJR 38 ENROLLED BILL TEXT ADOPTED IN SENATE AUGUST 18, 2010 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 20, 2010 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 16, 2010 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 24, 2010 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 20, 2010 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 13, 2010 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 22, 2010 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Caballero, Fuller, and Arambula (Coauthors: Assembly Members Adams, Anderson, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Charles Calderon, Carter, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nestande, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torres, Torrico, and Tran) FEBRUARY 25, 2010 Relative to public resources. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 38, Caballero. Public resources: Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project. This measure would request the United States Department of the Interior to complete, as soon as possible, its study of the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. WHEREAS, From 2007 to 2009, inclusive, California experienced a severe drought that adversely affected water supplies in many parts of the state, including water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) by the State Water Project (SWP) and the federal Central Valley Project (CVP), and also adversely affected the environment, including commercially valuable fish species; and WHEREAS, While most of the 2009 SWP and CVP water delivery reductions resulted from the multiyear drought, some additional reductions were made to protect state and federally listed smelt, salmon, and steelhead species native to the Delta, pursuant to federal biological opinions required by the federal Endangered Species Act; and WHEREAS, In 2009, the combination of recession, drought, water supply reductions, and other hardships contributed to significant local unemployment and economic dislocation in rural farming communities on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, affecting farmworkers, agriculture-related jobs, and small businesses; and WHEREAS, Water shortages during the drought of 2007 to 2009, inclusive, and the adverse economic, social, and environmental effects resulting from those shortages, underscore the need for California to do everything possible to manage our limited water resources efficiently, carefully, and responsibly; and WHEREAS, Currently, scientific studies of the causes of declines in populations of fish species in the Delta are ongoing and continue to further our understanding of the delicate environmental balance in the Delta and the influences of the various stressors affecting these populations; and WHEREAS, While there are many projects to be considered in working to protect and recover fish populations in the Delta, the Legislature urges expedient consideration of the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project. With $28,000,000 of funding for the project allocated as part of Proposition 84 (Senate Bill 1, Chapter 5 of the Seventh Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2009) and additional funding available from a combination of federal and private funds, this experimental project proposes to install barriers and gates that could reduce the loss of Delta smelt at state and federal pumps; and WHEREAS, While information about how the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project will affect Delta smelt and other imperiled fish species is currently unclear, the project presents a creative option that should be expeditiously analyzed and, if viable, implemented; and WHEREAS, In light of the importance of the Delta estuary, its fisheries, the millions of Californians who depend on the Delta for drinking water, and the millions of acres of prime farmland that depend on the Delta for irrigation, there is great urgency to identify and implement programs and projects that advance California' s coequal goals of protecting and restoring the Delta ecosystem while ensuring a reliable water supply for California; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature requests the United States Department of the Interior to complete, as soon as possible its study of the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.