Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Final Environmental Impact Statement / Environmental Impact Report (Chapters 1-8)

The Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Project (Project) has been developed to improve fish passage and increase floodplain fisheries rearing habitat in the Yolo Bypass and the lower Sacramento River basin. The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), as the Federal lead agency under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), as the State of California (State) lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), have prepared this joint Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) to assess impacts of the Project. The Project actions would implement Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA) action I.6.1 and, in part, RPA action I.7, as described in the 2009 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion and Conference Opinion on the Long-Term Operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project and the 2012 Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Implementation Plan (Reclamation and DWR 2012). 

Authority for combined Federal and State documents is provided in Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Sections 1502.25, 1506.2, and 1506.4 (Council on Environmental Quality’s Regulations for Implementing NEPA [CEQ Regulations]) and California Code of Regulations (CCR) Title 14, Division 6, Chapter 3 (State CEQA Guidelines), Section 15222 (Preparation of Joint Documents). This document was prepared consistent with United States Department of the Interior regulations specified in 43 CFR, Part 46 (United States Department of the Interior Implementation of NEPA, Final Rule). 

This EIS/EIR evaluates reasonably foreseeable potential direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on the environment that could result from implementing the Project alternatives. In addition, this EIS/EIR includes feasible mitigation measures to avoid, minimize, rectify, reduce, or compensate for adverse impacts.