“This project involved a review of existing literature as a means for evaluating uncertainties with regard to the scientific foundation on which dredging restrictions are based.”

Check out more studies by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute

SACRAMENTO – The California Natural Resources Agency today publicly released preliminary administrative drafts of all its Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) planning documents. BDCP is guided by the 2009 Delta Reform Act, which made it state policy to manage the Delta in support of the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration in a manner that acknowledges the evolving nature of the Delta as a place for people and communities.

“This is an unprecedented release of thousands of pages of scientific research and data for public scrutiny whose release is going to prompt a lot of important questions,” said California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. “What is absolutely clear is that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is in severe decline. Right now, fish populations are crashing and in the future climate change will have an even more dramatic impact on the health of the Delta. BDCP must be flexible to adapt and manage to this reality over time.”

These administrative draft documents analyze the movement of 5.9 million acre feet of water a year on average and the creation of over 110,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat. The movement of water number is derived from various proposed operating criteria for a conveyance designed to protect Delta fisheries. It represents one reasonable set of assumptions but is only a starting point for analysis.

“There is a great deal of scientific uncertainty about an estuary as ecologically complex as the Delta and the long-term effects of climate change on native fish species,” said the Director of the Department of Fish and Game Charlton H. Bonham. “With these materials, we can now engage in a scientifically rigorous and transparent discussion over how best to protect and restore fish, wildlife, and the Delta’s ecosystem while ensuring water supply reliability.”

BDCP is the most holistic, complex and science-based regulatory effort ever undertaken in the Delta, guided by a decade of intensive scientific fieldwork and analysis.

“These documents give us an important road map to meeting the dual goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability,” said acting Director of Water Resources Mark Cowin. “What is important now is robust, open engagement with all stakeholders so we can balance water supply and fisheries needs in a way that is consistent with the variety of important land uses and services in the Delta including flood protection, agriculture and recreation, to name a few.”

Continued Secretary for Natural Resources Laird: “The state has not made a decision and is not committed to the project outlined in these draft materials. But we believe the draft gives us (and the stakeholders) the information needed to define the basic elements of a proposed project in July, as previously announced by Governor Brown and Interior Secretary Salazar.”

See more at: http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/Library/DocumentsLandingPage/BDCPPlanDocuments.aspx

Overview

Chapters

Congressional efforts to address the water infrastructure funding gap continue with the previously reported hearings before the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment scheduled for February 28 and March 21.  In preparation for the hearing, the Subcommittee Republican staff have provided CASA with a draft proposal that it hopes will provide a basis for development of a formal legislative vehicle later this session or next year.  The proposal (see attached)  is limited to loan guarantees and loans.  There is a provision to allow for unrestricted uses of private activity bonds for water infrastructure, but this is a provision that is not new having been attached to the House and Senate transportation reauthorization bills. For more info: House water finance bill 201202210001458441

Outlook

As noted, this proposal has been provided in anticipation of the upcoming hearings.  Prospects of the measure being enacted into law are questionable in light of the current inability of Congress to move legislation like the massive highway spending reauthorization bill that in many respects contains similar provisions for roads.  However, the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request includes a $10 billion National Infrastructure Bank proposal that is very similar to this proposal.  Therefore, the relevance of this proposal may rest in the fact that both Congress and the Administration are seeking ways in which to redesign the way in which water infrastructure needs are financed within the budgetary constraints of the federal deficit.  Based on the hearing, CASA will be provide its comments to the Subcommittee.

The key provisions of the proposal include:

*       Vesting USEPA with the authority to provide for direct loans and loan guarantees for water and wastewater needs;
*       Making municipal and regional separate storm sewer systems, community water systems, or state infrastructure financing authorities eligible to apply for assistance;
*       Allowing for a public-private partnership to be eligible for assistance provided the assistance is directed to the public entity or the investor owned utility entity (not to the developer of a project);
*       Defining projects eligible for assistance:
        *       capital projects for construction, replacement, or rehabilitation;
        *       security upgrades;
        *       energy efficiency including renewable energy technologies;
        *       water efficiency to reduce water demand or need for wastewater treatment capacity;
        *       stormwater controls;
        *       water reuse ; and
        *       consolidation of two or more systems.

*       Defining project activities eligible to receive actual support (as opposed to the overall project):
        *       development phase activities including permitting;
        *       construction;
        *       property acquisition;
        *       financing costs associated with construction phases (reserve funds, issuance expenses);

*       Requiring USEPA to use criteria to select projects for assistance including significance of the project meeting infrastructure needs, project creditworthiness, need for project assistance, degree of other public and private assistance provided, cost impacts to federal government, and whether the project is nationally or regionally significant.
*       Requiring USEPA to develop a credit evaluation process prior extending project assistance;
*       Requiring that interest rates set at U.S. Treasury rates based on maturity date (higher rates allowed if project risks dictate);
*       Requiring a specific loan repayment schedule and providing that repayments must begin within 5 years of substantial completion date or using an undefined date after the loan is committed;
*       Authorizing that lenders of assistance must be a “non-federal qualified institutional buyer which includes pension funds; and
*       Allowing for appropriate administrative fees for such project assistance being extended.

In addition to the above provisions, the proposal would limit assistance to projects that exceed $20 million.  Combining projects would be permitted to achieve the threshold.  Because the bill would incur costs to the federal budget, actual authorizations for the loan and credit enhancement program are not provided to avoid scoring concerns required by the rules of the House.

Read more here.

This document provides guidance on how to comply with the water diversion measurement requirements under the California Water Code for diverters of water who file Statements of Water Diversion and Use (Statement). According to the State Water Resources Control Board’s (State Water Board) records, you filed a Statement or requested notification of this guidance.

Continue Reading Final Guidance for Complying with Water Diversion Measurement Requirements for Statement Holders

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center announces the publication of a new document:

Bioaccumulation Models: State of the Application at Large Superfund Sites by Karl Gustavson, Trina von Stackelberg, Igor Linkov, and Todd Bridges

If you wish to access/download the document (31 pages, 474 kb) in pdf format, the address is: http://libweb.wes.army.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/TN-DOER-R17.pdf