Delta Water and Levees

    On this page: Delta Conveyance | Delta Flood Risk Management Assessment District Feasibility Study | Delta Levee Investment Strategy

    Water

    Two primary conduits were constructed in the 20th Century to move water from northern sources in the Sierras to mostly southern areas of urban and agricultural demand. The Central Valley Project (CVP) was constructed by the US Bureau of Reclamation in the 1930s to transport water from Lake Shasta in the north, providing irrigation and drinking water to portions of the Bay Area and the arid southern San Joaquin Valley. The State Water Project (SWP) was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s by California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to supply drinking and irrigation water, as well as industrial uses, to millions of people and hundreds of thousands of acres in agriculture in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast, and Southern California. The hub of the whole system converges in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

    Delta Conveyance

    Part of the SWP master planning included a peripheral canal to convey Sacramento River water around the Delta, but in the 1980s construction of it was defeated in a statewide referendum. Subsequent planning efforts beginning in the 2000s included the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), which incorporated both conveyance and ecosystem restoration; the CA WaterFix consisting of two, approximately 35-mile tunnels diverting water from the Sacramento River near the towns of Hood and Clarksburg to the existing water export facilities in the south Delta; and currently the Delta Conveyance Project, a single tunnel diversion also beginning at a location between the towns of Hood and Clarksburg.

    The proposed Delta Conveyance Project involves two main separate but related processes:

    In addition, the state’s Water Resilience Portfolio is an important initiative affecting Delta communities.

    Delta Protection Commission Involvement

    Consistent with its legislative mandates, the Commission advocates for the protection of Delta communities, and promotes Delta cultural, agricultural, recreational, and natural resource concerns as an essential element in arriving at a solution to the state’s critical water supply needs. Copies of recent comment letters or actions taken by the Commission on water issues affecting the Delta region (including the single tunnel DWR environmental permitting and DCA construction design processes) will be available here:

    Newsletters providing updates on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Coordination Process under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act:

    For more information contact Virginia Gardiner. If you are interested in receiving updates, join our mailing list.

    Levees

    The Commission promotes the protection of life and property through the maintenance and improvement of Delta levees, and by facilitating coordinated emergency preparedness and response. This includes long-term planning for ongoing, cumulative levee improvements to address new issues as they arise over time.

    Delta Flood Risk Management Assessment District Feasibility Study

    We completed the Delta Flood Risk Management Assessment District Feasibility Study in May 2018 that identified feasible financing options to pay for levee improvements and other methods of reducing flood risk in the Delta. The study evaluated the potential of assessing a variety of entities with an interest in preventing Delta flooding to share in the capital investment and maintenance of Delta levees and recommended the most feasible procedures. The final report concluded an assessment district was not feasible. It did support the Delta Plan recommendation that “the Legislature should create a flood risk management assessment district to provide adequate flood control protection and emergency response for the regional benefit of all beneficiaries, including landowners, infrastructure owners, and other entities that benefit from the maintenance and improvement of Delta levees, such as water users who rely on the levees to protect water quality.” (Delta Plan Chapter 7, Recommendation RR R2).

    The study was developed in collaboration with State agencies, local reclamation districts, Delta landowners and businesses, and other stakeholders.

    Delta Levee Investment Strategy (DLIS)

    The Commission has been closely following the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Levee Investment Strategy (DLIS) effort. The Commission takes a keen interest in the outcome of the DLIS, as it will determine the revised Delta Plan priorities for Delta levees. Delta levee policy is critical to protecting and enhancing the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource and agricultural values of the Delta.  In its role as the voice of the Delta, the Commission has submitted comment letters throughout the DLIS process.

    For more information contact Bruce Blodgett.