Our question this week comes from William in Bakersfield. He asks:
How can I better understand the purpose of this legislative effort and what it is hoped to achieve, particularly that part related to the 2019 BiOps?
Thank you for your question, William. The biological opinions essentially act as a roadmap for how the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) can operate – meaning they inform when and how much water the CVP and SWP are able to pump at certain points of the water year. The Endangered Species Act requires a federal agency to work with relevant fishery service agencies to ensure their operations plans don’t jeopardize listed species. A Biological Opinion (BiOps) summarizes this work.
The 2019 BiOps were the product of a consultation that started in 2016 under the Obama Administration, and independently peer-reviewed and informed by the most accurate, best available science. The corresponding operations plans for the Central Valley Project and State Water Project employ the 2019 BiOps science and data to ensure greater water reliability and availability for communities and farms across California, while continuing to protect at-risk species. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s Bureau of Reclamation has ignored science and reinitiated consultation of these BiOps with no explanation, despite multiple requests for transparency. The reconslutation of the 2019 BiOps has caused significant uncertainty for Central Valley farmers about the future of their water supply, and I’ve led several efforts to obtain answers from Interior about their attempts to reverse them. The WATER for California Act would require the CVP and SWP be operated consistent with the 2019 BiOps to provide long-term certainty for our farmers and down-stream communities.