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State
California
WC Sec 79400-79401 Short Title and Legislative Findings (CALIFORNIA BAY-DELTA AUTHORITY ACT)

WATER CODE
SECTION 79400-79401





79400. This division shall be known and may be cited as the
California Bay-Delta Authority Act.



79401. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary is
the largest estuary on the West Coast of the United States. It
includes over 738,000 acres in five counties. The tributaries,
sloughs, and islands support over 750 plant and animal species.
(b) The bay-delta, its tributaries, and watershed are critical to
California's economy, supplying drinking water for two-thirds of
Californians and irrigation water for over 7,000,000 acres of the
most highly productive agricultural land in the world. It also
supports 80 percent of the state's commercial salmon fisheries.
(c) The bay-delta is the hub of California's two largest water
distribution systems--the Central Valley Project, operated by the
federal Bureau of Reclamation and the State Water Project, operated
by the California Department of Water Resources. It also provides
the conveyance of flood waters from most of the rivers in the Central
Valley.
(d) Conflicts currently exist regarding water use for the purposes
of water quality, fish protection, and water supply that demonstrate
how little flexibility the state's water supply systems have to meet
the state's growing demand for water and the need to protect the
environment.
(e) A solution to these problems requires state, federal, tribal,
and local action in numerous regions throughout the state, not only
in the bay-delta itself, but also in the bay-delta watershed and the
areas that depend on water exported from the bay-delta. The
California Bay-Delta Program is divided into the following five
regions:
(1) Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta.
(2) San Francisco Bay.
(3) Sacramento Valley.
(4) San Joaquin Valley.
(5) Southern California.
(f) Nearly two dozen state and federal agencies have some role in
managing or regulating the natural resources of the bay-delta and its
watershed. A coordinated implementation structure and organization
is necessary for the effective implementation of the California
Bay-Delta Program. The state and federal agencies participating in
the program include all of the following: the Resources Agency,
Department of Water Resources, Department of Fish and Game,
Department of Food and Agriculture, California Environmental
Protection Agency, State Water Resources Control Board, State
Department of Health Services, United States Department of the
Interior, United States Department of Agriculture, United States
Bureau of Reclamation, United States Fish and Wildlife Service,
United States Geological Survey, United States Bureau of Land
Management, United States National Marine Fisheries Service, United
States Environmental Protection Agency, United States Army Corp of
Engineers, United States Natural Resources Conservation Service,
United States Forest Service, and Western Area Power Administration.

(g) The agencies participating in the California Bay-Delta Program
have prepared a 30-year plan to coordinate existing programs and
direct new programs to improve the quality and reliability of the
state's water supplies and to restore the ecological health of the
bay-delta watershed.
(h) To ensure efficiency, transparency, and accountability in
decisionmaking, the implementation of the California Bay-Delta
Program requires the establishment of an authority. The authority is
intended to accomplish all of the following:
(1) Provide accountability to the Legislature, Congress, and
interested parties for the program's performance.
(2) Promote the implementation of the program in a balanced
manner.
(3) Provide consistent monitoring, assessment, and reporting of
the agencies' individual and cumulative actions.
(4) Provide the use of sound, consistent science across all
program elements.
(5) Coordinate existing and new government programs to meet common
goals, avoid conflicts, and eliminate redundancy and waste.
(6) Oversee coordinated implementation of the California
Bay-Delta Program in a manner that is consistent with the mission
statement, goals, and objectives of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program
Record of Decision, dated August 28, 2000, or as it may be amended.
(7) Promote the development and implementation of regional
programs to advance the program elements.
(i) The successful implementation of the California Bay-Delta
Program will require the full cooperation and participation of many
federal agencies. The Legislature, in adding this division, expects
the subsequent enactment of federal legislation authorizing the full
participation of federal agencies in the authority established and
activities prescribed by this division. Until that federal
legislation is enacted, federal agencies are invited to participate
in the authority and its activities, as described in this division,
to the extent possible under existing federal agency authorizations.