California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | May 28th, 2021
Summary
This Drought Contingency Plan (Drought Plan) is prepared by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in an effo
This Drought Contingency Plan (Drought Plan) is prepared by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in an effort to provide updated information about areas of potential concern given the current dry hydrology of 2021. DWR and Reclamation operate the State Water Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP), respectively, to the 2020 Record of Decision (ROD) as analyzed in the 2019 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Biological Opinion and 2019 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion on the Coordinated Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project (Collectively the 2019 Biological Opinions), and DWR also operates the SWP to the 2020 California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Incidental Take Permit (ITP). This updated Drought Plan will be submitted by DWR to CDFW in response to Condition 8.21 of CDFW’s ITP. Concurrently, this plan will be shared with the Water Operations Management Team (WOMT) which includes representatives from DWR, Reclamation, USFWS, NMFS, CDFW, and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) (collectively referred to as Agencies). This report was first drafted in February and subsequently updated in March, April, and May 2021.