BILL ANALYSIS
AJR 38
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR 38 (Caballero)
As Amended May 20, 2010
Majority vote
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 8-1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Huffman, Fuller, | | |
| |Anderson, Arambula, Tom | | |
| |Berryhill, Caballero, | | |
| |Fletcher, Salas | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Yamada | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Requests the United States Department of the Interior
(USDOI) to complete its study of the Two-Gates Fish Protection
Demonstration Project (Two-Gates Project) in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta Estuary (Delta). Specifically, this resolution :
1)Acknowledges that from 2007 to 2009 California experienced a
severe drought that adversely affected water supplies in many
parts of the state and the environment, including commercially
valuable fish species.
2)States that State Water Project (SWP) and federal Central
Valley Project (CVP) water supply reductions in 2009 were due
to drought, and to a lesser extent, actions to protect state
and federally listed smelt, salmon, and steelhead species
native to the Delta.
3)States that in the 2009 recession, drought, water supply
reductions, and other hardships affected farm workers,
ag-related jobs, and small businesses on the west side of the
San Joaquin Valley.
4)States that the water shortages during the drought and the
adverse economic, social, and environmental effects resulting
from those shortages underscore the need for all Californians
to manage our limited resources efficiently, carefully, and
responsibly.
5)States that the Two-Gates Project is an experimental project
AJR 38
Page 2
that proposes to install barriers and gates in the Delta to
reduce the loss of Delta smelt at the SWP/CVP pumps and infers
the Two-Gates Project would allow greater SWP/CVP export water
deliveries.
6)Underscores the importance of the Delta and the need to
identify and implement programs to advance California's
co-equal goals of protecting and restoring the Delta ecosystem
while ensuring a reliable water supply for California.
7)Calls on the USDOI to prioritize completion of the Two-Gates
Project study.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits the unauthorized take of species listed as
threatened and endangered under the federal Endangered Species
Act (ESA) and California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
2)Requires the SWP and CVP, which operate in a coordinated
fashion, to (at certain key times) restrict the degree to
which they cause Old River and Middle River in the Delta to
run backwards drawing aquatic organisms, including threatened
and endangered fish species, into the South Delta and the
SWP/CVP pumping plants.
FISCAL EFFECT : Nonfiscal
COMMENTS : The Two-Gates Project would erect two sheet pile
barriers, one over 800' wide and anchored in the bed of Old
River, the other over 400' wide and anchored in the bed of
Connection Slough near Middle River. Each barrier would have
two gates creating an opening in the center and a boat ramp to
be used when the gates are closed periodically, December through
June.
The Two-Gates Project scientific hypothesis is that Delta smelt
respond to changes in salinity and turbidity and that barriers
across Old River and Connection Slough will "manipulate water
flows, transport patterns and the turbidity field in the [Delta]
so as to lessen entrainment of federally (ESA threatened) and
state (California CESA endangered) protected juvenile and adult
Delta smelt by state and federal pumps in the south Delta" so as
"to provide equal or improved protection of Delta smelt" with
higher water exports than currently allowed under the Delta
AJR 38
Page 3
smelt biological opinion issued pursuant to the federal ESA.
In December 2009, the USDOI sent letters to San Luis and Delta
Mendota Water Agency (SLDMWA) and Metropolitan Water District
(MWD), the Two-Gates Project sponsors, advising that "the
underlying scientific premise of the project needs to be
established before the project can go forward, including the
installation of the proposed gates" and that cost estimates had
escalated from $29 million to between $60 and $80 million.
USDOI stated a decision "to expend public funds of this
magnitude cannot prudently be made in light of the fundamental
questions that have been raised regarding whether the scientific
assumptions that underlie the project are sound and, as a
result, whether the project will serve its intended purpose."
USDOI concluded that it was moving "quickly to work with the
[United States Geological Survey] to obtain needed data" and
that it was redirecting funds on an emergency basis to enable
data-gathering work to begin in the fall of 2010.
Supporters of this Resolution feel it is needed "to keep the
federal government's 'feet to the fire' to implement the
projects as soon as possible." Opponents of the project state
it is "an expensive scientific experiment with little chance of
success?that has serious impacts on the Delta and its
communities." In addition, Delta Counties and recreational
boating interests feel the project as designed does not
sufficiently address potential impacts on navigation including
the ability of law enforcement officials to conduct search and
rescue operations and enforce laws and regulations on the
waterways.
Finally, there are concerns by some members of the scientific
community that smelt and salmon are subject to increased
predation near artificial in-river structures and that the
project may adversely affect critical habitat for listed fish
species.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy/Igor Lacan / W., P. &
W. / (916) 319-2096 FN: 0004374