Over the past three and a half years, President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has directed historic investments to California to address the climate crisis, build drought resilience, and strengthen the Golden State’s aging infrastructure. The resilience of the Central Valley Project, with its importance to California’s agricultural industry and drinking water deliveries to major urban centers in the Greater Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas, has been a central focus of our mission since day one.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation manages the Central Valley Project – a 400-mile, multi-purpose network of dams, reservoirs, canals and hydroelectric powerplants – while the California Department of Water Resources manages the State Water Project. Collectively, the operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project serves the water needs of 30 million people while providing flood control and navigation, supporting 4 million acres of agriculture, maintaining 19 national wildlife refuges throughout the Pacific Flyway, and protecting numerous iconic and endemic species such as Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and smelt.
Protecting the functionality and resilience of this critical resource has never been more important for the Californians and wildlife alike who depend on it every single day. Now, with funds committed to the Central Valley Project from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are ensuring the future of critical water supplies for wildlife refuges and Northern California cities, saving crops from being fallowed in drought years, and keeping water in the San Joaquin River – California’s second largest.
To date, nearly $3 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act has been invested to address drought, promote conservation, and repair aging infrastructure in California. In the Central Valley, these include projects like improvements to the San Benito County Water District’s Accelerated Drought Response Project which, with $6.7 million announced earlier this year, will save an average of 1,035 acre-feet per year of stored water during wet years. It also includes $25 million in funding for the Tracy Fish Facility to meet current needs and modernize the structure to respond to today’s environment.
The Investing in American agenda has also prioritized storage projects, including the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and Expansion project and the Sites Reservoir Project. Federal investments in these two projects have reached nearly $700 million and will create additional water storage capacity that will benefit water contractors, wildlife and communities throughout the region. Together, these funds are working to strengthen the Central Valley Project, reduce flood risk for the Central Valley, and provide domestic and industrial water supplies across the region, all while building communities that are resilient to the climate crisis.
These efforts are part of the Biden-Harris administration’s all-of-government approach to enhance the resilience of the West to drought and climate change. That includes coordinating with partners across federal and state agencies to aide impacted communities and develop long-term solutions to climate change based on the best available science.
This collaboration was recently put in the spotlight, as our teams worked with state leaders and Central Valley Project water agencies to identify a long-term drought plan for the region. Through the new drought plan, initially funded by $81 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, Central Valley Project South-of-Delta contractors will share a portion of their wet water year supplies for use during our driest years, meaning irreplaceable water supplies for cities, crops and local rivers.
The plan also provides major benefits for both agricultural production and salmon in the San Joaquin River. Because the river restoration program has junior water rights and is vulnerable to severe water cutbacks during extreme drought years, the creation of a “drought pool” of additional water supplies during these driest of years will help ensure that both water and salmon remain abundant.
The climate crisis is here to stay, and there is much more work to do to secure water resilience for families across California and the West. In spite of these challenges, our Administration has taken major steps to set California on a course to resiliency by improving multi-year drought planning in both the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and through historic water infrastructure investments that will leave families, industries and entire swaths of the state more resilient during drought years. This work has been made possible because of our partnerships on the ground, with the communities that know this region best. Our work is far from finished, but our shared accomplishments are building a more drought-resilient future for Californians across this treasured region.
Sun View commentary submitted with Principal Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain.
