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Bulletin 160-98 Public Review Draft 003J79 Appendix 2A Institutional Framework for Allocating and Managing Water Resources in California facilities development, negotiated settlements, and flow objectives. Concurrently, under the broad authority of the Endangered Species Act, the federal regulatory process was proceeding toward development of Delta standards and lipstream measures applicable to the CVP and SWP for the protection of the threatened winter-run chinook salmon. In February 1993, the NMFS issued a long-term biological opinion governing operations of the CVP and SWP with Delta environmental regulations that, in certain months, were more restrictive than SWRCB's proposed measures. In March 1993, the USFWS listed the Delta smelt as a threatened species and shortly thereafter indicated that further restrictions of CVP and SWP operations would be required. In December 1993, ErA announced its proposed standards for the estuary in place of the S WRCB water quality standards EP A had rejected in 1991. In addition, USFWS proposed to list the Sacramento splittail as a threatened species, and NMFS announced its decision to change the status of winter-run salmon from threatened to endangered. The impending regulatory gridlock lead to the negotiation and signing of the June 1994 Framework Agreement for the Bay-Delta Estuary. The Framework Agreement and subsequent Bay-Delta activities are described in Chapter 2. Fish Protection Agreements. To mitigate fish losses at Delta export facilities, both the SWP and the CVP have entered into agreements with DFG. As part of the environmental review process for installing four additional pumps at DWR's Banks Pumping Plant in the Delta in 1992, DFG and DWR negotiated an agreement to preserve fish potentially affected by the operation of the pumps. This agreement, signed by the two departments in 1986, identifies the steps needed to offset adverse impacts of the Banks Pumping Plant on fisheries. It sets up a procedure to calculate direct fishery losses annually and requires DWR to pay for mitigation projects that would offset the losses. Losses of striped bass, chinook salmon, and steelhead are to be mitigated first. Mitigation of other species is to follow as impacts are identified and appropriate mitigation measures found, In recognition of the fact that direct losses today would probably be greater if fish populations had not been depleted by past operations, DWR also provided a $15 million capital outlay for a program to increase the probability of quickly demonstrated results. In 1996, DWR and DFG agreed to extend the period for expending the remainder of the $15 million to the year 200 l. 2A-17