Water and Environmental Agencies

CALFED

The CALFED Bay-Delta Program emerged from water crises of the 1990s, and was shaped by funding crises in the early 2000s. It was seen as an alternative to the costly and time-consuming legal wrangling amongst Delta interests and a way to solve conflicts in the Delta to benefit the system. Throughout these decades, it has always embodied the most important ideals of government: interagency coordination, collaborative problem-solving and public involvement leading to open and transparent decision-making and accountability.

The CALFED Bay-Delta Program is a unique collaboration among 25 state and federal agencies that came together with a mission: to improve California’s water supply and the ecological health of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

CALFED was created because of the importance of the Delta to California. The majority of the state’s water runs through the Delta and into aqueducts and pipelines that distribute it to 25 million Californians throughout the state, making it the single largest and most important source of water for drinking, irrigation and industry.

As an ecosystem, the Delta is unique as the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast and home to more than 750 species of flora and fauna. Additionally, the Delta is home to more than 500,000 people, a major recreation destination and a crossroads for Northern California infrastructure. Finally, the importance of the Delta has made it a politically-charged battleground that has compounded the issue of finding solutions to its problems as an aging and increasingly fragile system susceptible to the forces of land subsidence, seasonal flooding, a future of climate change and sea level rise, the specter of earthquake and the collapse of its ecosystem.

It was the Delta’s importance to the economic stability of California and the nation that led to the drafting in 2000 of a 30-year plan for its management and restoration. Implementation of the plan was ultimately pledged by 25 state and federal agencies with expertise to manage the complex program. This plan, set forth in a programmatic Record of Decision, laid out a science-based planning process through which the participating agencies were able to make and implement better, more informed decisions and actions on future projects and programs. Two years later, the California Bay-Delta Authority was created to oversee the program’s implementation and Congress adopted the plan in 2004.

Department of Water Resources

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is responsible for managing and protecting California’s water. DWR works with other agencies to benefit the state’s people, and to protect, restore and enhance the natural and human environments.

In 1956, the Legislature passed a bill creating DWR to plan, design, construct, and oversee the building of the nation’s largest state-built water development and conveyance system. Today, DWR protects, conserves, develops, and manages much of California’s water supply including the State Water Project which provides water for 25 million residents, farms, and businesses.

Working with other agencies and the public, DWR develops strategic goals, and near-term and long-term actions to conserve, manage, develop, and sustain California’s watersheds, water resources, and management systems. DWR also works to prevent and respond to floods, droughts, and catastrophic events that would threaten public safety, water resources and management systems, the environment, and property.

Balancing the State’s water needs with environmental protection remains a long-term challenge. The Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program is a key initiative currently underway to promote the recovery of endangered, threatened, and sensitive fish and wildlife and their habitats in the critically important Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in a manner that will also ensure water supply reliability for the State.

Northern Sacramento Valley Integrated Regional Water Management

NSV IRWM Overview

The six counties of the Northern Sacramento Valley have been working together for over 10 years to lay the foundation for an integrated regional plan to address water-related issues such as economic health and vitality; water supply reliability; flood, storm water and flood management; water quality improvements; and ecosystem protection and enhancement. The counties have completed the development of a valley-wide Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, and have committed to continuing the efforts of regional water management through this plan.

The Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) is a collaborative effort to enhance coordination of the water resources in a region. IRWM involves multiple agencies, stakeholders, tribes, individuals and groups to address water-related issues and offer solutions which can provide multiple benefits to the region. Representatives of the six counties are working in partnership with community stakeholders, tribes and the public to identify the water-related needs of the region. This information was used to develop goals and objectives of the IRWM Plan, and the identification of projects and programs to be included in the Plan. The Plan was adopted in April, 2014, and will better position the region and local partners to receive funding for high-priority projects.

NSV IRWM Board

The NSV IRWM Board began meeting on January 19, 2011 and met roughly every other month of 2011. Beginning in March 2012, their regular meetings moved to the first Monday of the months of March, June, September and December of 2012. The Board consists of three appointments made by each of the six Boards of Supervisors in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Shasta, Sutter and Tehama Counties, for a total of eighteen members.

The NSV IRWM Board worked with stakeholders throughout the region to develop an integrated regional water management plan (IRWMP) pursuant to the California Water Code §10450-10543. Initial tasks in the plan development were funded through a $100,000 USBR grant administered by RD 108, as well as $50,000 Proposition 50 state funding awarded to Butte County. The group was also awarded $900,000 of planning funding by the Department of Water Resources under Proposition 84. The contract for this funding was finalized in October 2011. Simultaneously, the sub-contract for the development of the IRWM Plan was awarded to West Yost Associates through a competitive process.

Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum

About SRCAF

The Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum (Forum) is a non-profit organization that evolved from 1986 State of California legislation (SB1086). The legislation called for a management plan to protect, restore and enhance the fisheries and riparian habitat along the Sacramento River from Keswick Dam down river to Verona. This effort is cooperative in nature and works to ensure that habitat restoration and management addresses not only the dynamics of riparian ecosystems, but also the realities of local agricultural and recreational issues associated with land use changes occurring along the river.

The Forum works with communities, agricultural interests, landowners, organizations and agencies along the Sacramento River from Keswick to Verona to facilitate resource management and restoration efforts to be effective, balanced and sensitive to the needs of local communities. The Forum supports restoration done well and serves as a forum for sharing, a facilitator of solutions and a partner for projects that protect both the natural values of the Sacramento River and the communities it runs through.

The Forum continues to promote and coordinate restoration related activities along the Sacramento River, develop and implement site-specific and sub-reach plans for areas within the Conservation Area, review and track projects and monitor ecosystem restoration progress within the Sacramento River Conservation Area (SRCA), and work to build a broader support and understanding of the goals of CALFED and the SB1086 Program.

Water Districts and Agencies

Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District

2810 Silver Street
Anderson, CA 96007
(530) 365-7329

Corning Water District

22240 Gallagher Avenue
Corning, CA 96021
(530) 824-2914

Deer Creek Irrigation District

P.O. Box 3
Vina, CA 96092
(530) 839-2365

El Camino Irrigation District

8451 Highway 99W
Gerber, CA 96035
(530) 385-1559

Gerber-Las Flores CSD

331 San Benito Avenue
Gerber, CA 96035
(530) 385-1904

Los Molinos Mutual Water Company

P.O. Box 211
Los Molinos, CA 96055
(530) 384-2737

Mineral Water Company

P.O. Box 206
Mineral, CA 96063
(530) 595-3479

Proberta Water District

21680 Flores Avenue
Red Bluff, CA 96080
(530) 528-8604

Rancho Tehama Association

P.O. Box 5111
Corning, CA 96021
(530) 585-2444
http://www.ranchotehama.org

Rio Alto Water District

22099 River View Drive
Cottonwood, CA 96022
(530) 347-3835
http://www.rawd.org