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t _~ "Within the first year of implementation of the CVPIA, we witnessed a 300% increase in mid- September waterfowl use on private wetlands habitat within Grasslands [wildlife area]. This was a direct result of being able to apply spring and summer water which was simply not available for use prior to CVPIA's passage." Don Marciochi, General Manager of the Grasslands Water District Central Valley Project, California For over forty years, the Central Valley Project, a system of more than 20 dams and 500 miles of canals in California's Central Valley, has diverted approximately 90% of the project's water out of area rivers for use in irrigated agriculture. Because of a priority scheme that favored agriculture, fish and wildlife generally received project water only when other users would not be negatively affected by such deliveries. A diverse coalition of interests -including environmental groups, commercial and sport fishermen, duck hunters, waterfowl organizations, Native Americans and urban and business interests -came together to address the long-standing environmental degradation caused by the massive water diversions. The coalition helped pass the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 (CVPIA or Improvement Act), a federal law that provides a legislative mandate to reallocate water to fish and wildlife. Central Valley Project Improvement Act The new law dramatically changes the Central Valley Project's priorities by ranking environmental purposes on a par with irrigation and domestic uses. It also reallocates some project water back to the original users, including salmon, steelhead 38 trout, sandhill cranes, mallards and other fish and wildlife. Three separate provisions of the Improvement Act establish three distinct pots of environmental water - one for wildlife refuges, another for instream use in Central Valley rivers and streams and a third for instream flows in the Trinity River in the northwestern part of the state (see Trinity River Basin, California). Water for Wetlands and l~'~6`dllfe Aefarges Prior to the Gold Rush of l~i~;", California's Ce;~r,~al Vall:,v included four million acres of ~.vetla;~ds. Today, that number is roughi :450,000 acres, a decline of over 90%. A vari:~cy of factors contrib- uted to wetlands decimation, including construction of the Central Valley Project, starting in the 1940s. Sixty percent of the Central Valley's remaining wetlands are authorized to receive Central Valley Project water. These "managed wetlands" com- prise state, federal and privately owned lands that are important habitat for millions of migrating and nesting water- fowl and other birds. Located along the Pacific Flyway, the ancient migratory "highway" stretching from Alaska to South America, Central Valley wetlands are wintering grounds for an estimated 60% of the Flyway's millions of migrating birds.