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<br />~ <br />in <br />Co) <br />C\J <br />C; <br />o <br /> <br />"I don't think it's <br />particularly fair <br />that it mostly falls <br />on West lands, but <br />that's the reality of <br />the water rights <br />system." <br /> <br />- Cynthia Koehler, <br />Save the Bay <br /> <br />The Programmatic EIS <br />At the ccnter of the debate over <br />how the CVPIA should be imple- <br />mented is the PElS. <br />As rcquired by the act, the <br />PElS was prepared plltsuant to the <br />National Environmental Policy Act <br />by the Bureau and U.S. Fish and <br />Wildlife Service (USFWS). Thc <br />PElS analyzes the broad environ- <br />mental and socioeconomic impacts <br />of the act's requirements up to the <br />yeat 2025. <br />The PElS was completed in <br />October. Pending is a RecOtd of <br />Decision (ROD), which is expected <br />to be released in the next few <br />months. The 20- to 50-page <br />ROD will guide decision-makers' <br />implementation of the CVPIA. <br />Completion of the PElS and relcasc <br />of the ROD ate important because <br />these two documents will allow <br />many items required by the <br /> <br />10 <br /> <br />negotiations on new long~term <br />contracts, and the Bureau turned to <br />interim contracts. These two~ to three~ <br />year agreements increased the contract <br />ratc for water to the cost of service <br />rate. In addition, the interim contracts <br />required users to implement water <br />conservation plans as required by the <br />act and pay fees to the environmental <br />restoration fund. <br />With telease of the encyclopedia- <br />sized PElS, negotiations of l()ng~term <br />contracts began, It promises to be a <br />difficult and arduous process with <br />many contentious issues: water <br />quantity; right to contract renewal; <br />tiered pricing; shortage provisions; and <br />pricing policies. Some 11 Z contracts <br />are involved in the negotiations, and <br />Interior plans to have the first con~ <br />tracts finished and signcd by Nov. 30. <br />(Renewal of water rights contracts <br />between Sacramento River water users <br />and Interior will he negotiated inde~ <br />pendently by 2004.) <br />Negotiating sessions, which are <br />open to the public, will be held once <br /> <br />CVPIA to move forward. <br />In developing the massive <br />PElS - which totals some 5,000 <br />pages - USFWS and the Bureau <br />examined the impacts of several <br />alternatives for implementing the <br />law. Provisions of the CYPlA <br />examined in the document include: <br />CVP water service contract renew~ <br />als; water transfers; tiered water <br />pricing; CVP operational changes; <br />fish and wildlife water dedication <br />and management; fish and wildlife <br />water acquisitions; fish and wildlife <br />habitat improvements; refuge water <br />supplies; land retirement; and <br />facility modifications. <br />While the final PElS examines <br />the "big picture" of the CVPIA, <br />more detailed evaluations will be <br />conducted for many specific actions <br />prior to on-the-ground implementa- <br />tion of some CYPIA provisions. <br /> <br />or twice a week over the next nine <br />months. Facing the six~person Bureau <br />team across the table will be dozens of <br />water district staff and attorneys. <br />"Everybody has to attend because any <br />clause put into a contract may set a <br />precedent for your contract," said Dan <br />Fults, project administrator fat the <br />San Joaquin River Group Authority. <br />In the draft contract proposal <br />released Nov. 3, Bureau officials <br />proposed an approach that redefines <br />each district's CVP water supply into <br />two categories. Category I would be <br />water available in an average year and <br />Category II would be additional watet <br />that may bc available, up to the full <br />contract amount, tn above normal or <br />wet years. Category I water would be <br />calculated as the average quantity of <br />water delivered to the contractor <br />during the most recent five~year <br />petiod. <br />The Bureau maintains the Cat~ <br />egory IjCategory II water designation <br />offers the best approach because <br />officials recognize that with the <br />CYPIA and other environmental <br />mandates, the CVP is no longet <br />capable of delivering in normal water <br />years all the water fat which it has <br />water service contracts. <br />('CVPIA has gi ven us several new <br />goals and objectives designed to <br />develop a more reasonable balance <br />among competing demands for use of <br />CVP water," formet Assistant Interior <br />Sectetary Patty Beneke said in the <br />press release announcing release of the <br />proposed contract. <br />Contractors, however, see <br />Interior's draft proposal as reducing <br />their base water supply. "Contractors <br />are dismayed by the tone and approach <br />of Reclamation's announced renewal <br />objectives," Peltier wrote in a letter to <br />Snow shortly after Snow was named <br />regional director. "The consistent <br />themes that have emetged ftom the <br />Bureau presentations at renewal <br />workshops to date arc that the United <br />States has no responsibility to treat its <br />contractors fairly or to seek to achieve <br />contracts which will meet contractors' <br />needs." <br /> <br />Western Water <br />