Addressing Multiple Stressors and Multiple Goals in the Delta Plan

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | January 26th, 2011

Agreement Between the United States of America and the State of California for Coordinated Operating Agreement for the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | November 24th, 1986

The 1986 agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources for the coordinated operation of the Central Valley Project and the State Water

The 1986 agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources for the coordinated operation of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.

Alternative management paradigms for the future of the Colorado and Green Rivers

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | January 28th, 2021

The Colorado River is among the most extensively managed river systems in the world. The river’s headwaters are within the Rocky Mountains in the United States. From t

The Colorado River is among the most extensively managed river systems in the world. The river’s headwaters are within the Rocky Mountains in the United States. From there, it flows through the arid lands of the Colorado Plateau and the Basin-and-Range to its delta in northwestern Mexico. Here, the river is the only significant water supply in an otherwise starkly arid landscape and has long been called “America’s Nile.” It provides a critical water supply for nearly four million acres of irrigated land, municipal supplies for 30 million people located within and outside the basin, and more than 4,200 MW of hydropower generation capacity. The Colorado River and some of its tributaries also provide an existing or potential water supply for at least 15 Native American tribes. The river flows through seven National Wildlife Refuges, four National Recreation Areas, and five National Parks. Today, the annual consumptive uses and losses of streamflow in the basin typically exceed the amount of water available, and the river rarely flows into the Gulf of California. The impacts of climate change are likely to decrease future runoff and intensify droughts, thereby threatening current and future uses in the basin. Clearly, new ways of thinking about and managing the river need to be sought and implemented.

Alternatives for Delta Water Transfers

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | November 1st, 1983

American River Group (ARG) Annual Report of Activities

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | November 14th, 2018

An Alternative Technique to Quantify the Incidental Take of Listed Anadromous Fishes at the Federal and State Water Export Facilities in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) | July 1st, 2011

An Assessment of Potential Severe Droughts in the Colorado River Basin

American Water Resources Association (AWRA) | September 15th, 2022

An Evaluation of Juvenile Salmonid Routing and Barrier Effectiveness, Predation, and Predatory Fishes at the Head of Old River, 2009–2012

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | February 2nd, 2015

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) manage the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP),

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) manage the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP), respectively, and are charged to do so in a manner that maintains the survival of anadromous salmonids subject to the terms of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) 2009 Biological Opinion (BO) and 2011 amendments regarding the Long-Term Central Valley Project and State Water Project Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP). Action IV.1.3 of the NMFS’s 2009 BO instructs these agencies to “consider engineering solutions to further reduce diversion of emigrating juvenile salmonids to the interior and southern Delta, and reduce exposure to CVP and SWP export facilities.” Specifically, one objective of Action IV.1.3 is to “prevent emigrating salmonids from entering channels in the south Delta (e.g., Old River, Turner Cut) that increase entrainment risk to Central Valley steelhead migrating from the San Joaquin River through the Delta.”

Anadromous Salmonid Fish Passage Facility Design

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) | July 26th, 2011

The primary effect of barriers (e.g., hydroelectric dams, water storage projects, irrigation diversions, impassable culverts, etc.) on Pacific salmonids is the reduction

The primary effect of barriers (e.g., hydroelectric dams, water storage projects, irrigation diversions, impassable culverts, etc.) on Pacific salmonids is the reduction in population abundance and productivity through excessive mortality and reduction in habitat quantity and quality. Individuals are lost to the population due to death from passing through turbines, disproportionate predation in reservoirs, entrainment at unscreened or improperly screened diversions, etc. Spatial structure and diversity have also been reduced by the loss of nearly 40% of salmon habitat from dams (NRC 1996), either through complete blockage or inundation. This document is intended to assist with improving conditions for salmonids that must migrate past barriers to complete their life cycle. The task involved in successfully passing fish upstream or downstream of an in-river impediment is a dynamic integration of fish behavior, physiology, and bio-mechanics with hydraulic analysis, hydrologic study, and engineering. Installing a fish passage structure does not constitute providing satisfactory fish passage unless all of the above components are adequately factored into the design. The following document provides criteria, rationale, guidelines, and definitions for the purpose of designing proper fish passage facilities for the safe, timely, and efficient upstream and downstream passage of anadromous salmonids at impediments created by artificial structures, natural barriers (where provision of fish passage is consistent with management objectives), or altered instream hydraulic conditions. This document provides fishway facility design standards for the National Marine Fisheries Service, and is to be used for actions pertaining to the various authorities and jurisdictions of NMFS, including Section 18 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) in the Northwest Region (NWR). This document intends to provide generic guidance as an alternative to active participation by NMFS engineers in a design process, for the purpose of providing designs that will be acceptable for fishways that fall within NMFS jurisdictions. If passage facilities are designed and constructed in a manner consistent with these criteria, adverse impacts to anadromous fish migration will be minimized. Instances will occur where a fish passage facility may not be a viable solution for correcting a passage impediment, due to biological, sociological, or economic constraints. In these situations, removal of the impediment or altering operations may be a suitable surrogate for a constructed fish passage facility. In other situations, accomplishing fish passage may not be an objective of NMFS because of factors such as limited habitat or lack of naturally occurring runs of anadromous fish upstream of the site. To determine whether NMFS will use its various authorities to promote or to prescribe fish passage, NMFS will rely on a collaborative approach, considering the views of other fisheries resource agencies, Native American Tribes, non-government organizations, and citizen groups, and will strive to accomplish the objectives in watershed plans for fisheries restoration and enhancement. This document does not address aspects of design other than those that provide for safe and timely fish passage, and to some extent, preservation of aquatic habitat. Structural integrity, public safety, and other aspects of facility design are the responsibility of the principal design engineer, who should ensure that the final facility design meets all other requirements in addition to the fish passage criteria and guidelines contained in this document.

Analyses of Rotary Screw Trap Sampling of Migrating Juvenile Chinook Salmon in the Stanislaus River, 1996-2005

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | August 1st, 2006