In re Bay-Delta Programmatic Environmental Impact Report Coordinated Proceedings

California’s two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers, meet to form a delta (California Delta or Delta) near the City of Sacramento, and their combined waters, if not diverted, flow through the Delta, Suisun Bay, and San Francisco Bay, to the Pacific Ocean. The flow of water through this region, commonly known as the Bay-Delta, forms the largest estuary on the West Coast of the United States. It is also the hub of California’s two largest water distribution systems, supplying drinking water for two-thirds of California’s residents and irrigation water for seven million acres of agricultural land.

Competition for the Bay-Delta’s resources, pollution of Bay-Delta water, draining and filling of tidal marshes and other wetlands, and diversion of Bay-Delta water for urban and agricultural uses throughout the state have, however, resulted in a decline in Bay-Delta wildlife habitat, the threatened extinction of plant and animal species, an increasing risk of failure of Bay-Delta levees, and degradation of the Bay-Delta as a reliable source of high quality water.

In 1994, to address the Bay-Delta’s problems, 18 federal and state agencies formed a…