Document Details

Undelivered Water: Fulfilling the CVPIA promise to Central Valley refuges

Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) Refuge Water Supply Program Independent Review Panel (CVPIA Independent Review Panel) | November 3rd, 2009


The 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act transformed California’s federal water management system by providing fish and wildlife a co-equal priority with other uses. In so doing, the Act mandated that the federal government establish a program, now known as the Refuge Water Supply Program (RWSP), to manage, secure, and deliver a reliable, clean water supply to serve the wetland habitat needs of nineteen federal, state, and private wildlife refuges in California’s Central Valley.

The refuges protect a significant portion of the last remaining 5 percent of the historic Central Valley wetlands and provide birds of the Pacific Flyway habitat during critical periods when no other wetlands habitat may be available. In response to a request from OMB, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service established an Independent Panel to evaluate the performance of the RWSP component of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act.

Keywords

Central Valley Project (CVP), ecosystem management, flows, Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta