[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 130 (Friday, July 6, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35668-35669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-16928]



[[Page 35668]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation


Environmental Water Account, San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San 
Joaquin Delta, CA

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation/California Department of Water Resources, 
Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement/
environmental impact report (EIS/EIR).

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and 
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Bureau of 
Reclamation (Reclamation) and the California Department of Water 
Resources (DWR) intend to prepare an EIS/EIR for implementing the 
Environmental Water Account (EWA) as described in the Programmatic 
Record of Decision for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program.
    The EWA has been established to provide water for the protection 
and recovery of fish beyond water available through existing regulatory 
actions related to State Water Project/Central Valley Project 
operations. The EWA is a cooperative management program whose purpose 
is to provide protection to the fish of the Bay-Delta estuary through 
environmentally beneficial changes in project operations at no 
uncompensated water cost to the projects' water users. This approach to 
fish protection requires the acquisition of alternative sources of 
project water supply, called the ``EWA assets,'' which will be used to 
augment streamflows, Delta outflows, to modify exports to provide 
fishery benefits, and to replace the regular project water supply 
interrupted by the changes to project operations. The replacement water 
will compensate for reductions in deliveries relative to existing 
facilities, project operations and the regulatory baseline that result 
from EWA actions.
    Reclamation will be the lead federal agency; the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service will be 
cooperating agencies for the EIS/EIR in accordance with NEPA. DWR will 
be the lead state agency; the Department of Fish and Game will be a 
responsible agency for the EIS/EIR in accordance with CEQA. A draft 
EIS/EIR is expected to be available in December 2001.

DATES: A series of public scoping meetings will be held to solicit 
public input on alternatives, concerns, and issues to be addressed in 
the EIS/EIR as follows:
     Thursday, July 19, 10-12 noon, Sacramento, CA.
     Thursday, July 19, 7-9 p.m., Chico, CA.
     Monday, July 23, 7-9 p.m., Oakland, CA.
     Tuesday, July 24, 7-9 p.m., Tracy, CA.
     Wednesday, July 25, 7-9 p.m., Bakersfield, CA.
     Thursday, July 26, 7-9 p.m., Los Angeles, CA.
    Written comments on the scope of the EIS/EIR may be mailed to 
Reclamation at the address below by August 20, 2001.

ADDRESSES: The meeting locations are:
     Sacramento at Best Western Expo Inn, 1413 Howe Avenue.
     Chico at Chico Area Recreation District Community Center, 
545 Vallambrosa.
     Oakland at the Federal Building, Room H, 5th Floor, North 
Tower.
     Tracy at the VFW Hall, 430 West Grant Line Road.
     Bakersfield at the Double Tree Inn, 3100 Camino Del Rio 
Court, Sierra Room.
     Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 
South Figueroa Street, Room 513.
    Written comments on the scope of the EIS/EIR should be sent to Ms. 
Michelle Light, Bureau of Reclamation, 2800 Cottage Way, MP-700, 
Sacramento, CA 95825.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Light at the above address or by 
telephone at 916-978-5060 or TDD 1-800-735-2922; or Ms. Delores Brown, 
Department of Water Resources, 3251 S Street, Sacramento, CA 95816 or 
by telephone at 916-227-2407.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The CALFED Bay Delta Program is a long-term comprehensive plan to 
restore ecological health and improve water management for beneficial 
uses in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta) 
estuary system. The agencies that signed the Record of Decision/Notice 
of Determination (ROD) for the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement/Environmental Impact Report on August 28, 2000, committed to 
implement the CALFED Bay Delta Program. The Environmental Water Account 
(EWA) is one component of the long-term comprehensive plan adopted in 
the CALFED Bay-Delta Program ROD.
    To achieve the program purpose, the long-term plan addresses 
problems of the Bay-Delta system within each of four resource 
categories: ecosystem quality, water quality, water supply reliability, 
and levee system integrity. CALFED agencies identified a need in the 
ROD for additional fisheries protection measures above and beyond the 
existing baseline regulatory measures to speed recovery of listed fish 
species. The establishment of the EWA was a key component of this 
additional protection.
    The EWA is a cooperative management program involving five CALFED 
agencies that have responsibility for implementing the EWA. The three 
management agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the 
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the California Department 
of Fish and Game (DFG), have primary responsibility for determining how 
to manage the EWA assets to benefit long-term survival of fish species, 
including those listed under the State and Federal Endangered Species 
Acts. The two Project Agencies are Reclamation and the Department. The 
Project Agencies will cooperate with the Management Agencies in 
administering the EWA, including banking, borrowing, transferring, 
selling, making operational changes, and arranging for the conveyance 
of EWA assets.

Current Activities

    Following the signing of the ROD in August of 2000, the California 
Department of Water Resources undertook the initial required 
acquisitions and one-year transfers. As of June 2001, 294,000 acre-feet 
had been acquired, of which 281,000 acre-feet was used to protect 
threatened and endangered fish species. A critique and scientific 
review of the first year of EWA implementation will be conducted this 
summer, and the results will be used to help formulate strategies for 
managing the EWA in subsequent years.

Alternative Measures

    The ROD for the CALFED Bay Delta Program described broad actions to 
be taken as part of a long-term plan to fix the problems in the Delta: 
ecosystem, water quality, water supply reliability and levee stability. 
As described above, the EWA is one element of the long-term plan to 
which the signatory agencies have committed. This EIS/EIR will focus on 
a project specific evaluation of the EWA including alternative 
strategies for banking, borrowing, transferring, and using water assets 
to achieve the EWA.
    Our practice is to make comments, including names and home 
addresses of respondents, available for public review. Individual 
respondents may request that we withhold their home address from public 
disclosure, which

[[Page 35669]]

we will honor to the extent allowable by law. There also may be 
circumstances in which we would withhold a respondent's identity from 
public disclosure, as allowable by law. If you wish us to withhold your 
name and/or address, you must state this prominently at the beginning 
of your comment. We will make all submissions from organizations or 
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as 
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, available 
for public disclosure in their entirety.

    Dated: June 22, 2001.
Laura Allen,
Acting Regional Environmental Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-16928 Filed 7-5-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MN-P