U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and DWR Release Revised Draft Species-by-Species Analysis
From the California Water Fix website:
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) have released a revised biological assessment for the California WaterFix to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with a request to begin the formal consultation process under Section 7 of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The goal of WaterFix is to balance the needs of California residents with the needs of Delta fish and wildlife. This biological assessment articulates how WaterFix would be operated to meet the needs of endangered species.
A biological assessment is required to obtain incidental take authorization under ESA. The document presents an assessment of effects on listed species and their designated critical habitats, due to any component of the project, including construction-related activities, or as a result of operations and maintenance. The biological assessment also proposes mitigation, monitoring, adaptive management, and other actions DWR and Reclamation may take to ensure that California WaterFix will avoid, minimize, or compensate for the potential impacts resulting from incidental take of listed species or critical habitat loss. The document was developed by DWR and Reclamation in close collaboration with NMFS and USFWS.
The biological assessment provides the basis for consultation with NMFS and USFWS under the ESA. If NMFS and USFWS accept the request for consultation, they will then make a determination related to the project’s potential jeopardy to species and may issue a biological opinion reflecting this determination.
The biological assessment presents a species-by-species analysis of the project’s potential effects and must make a “likely to adversely affect” determination for each federally listed species even when the impacts are small – potential harm to one fish, for example – or nearly negligible, and notwithstanding the fact that the overall project effect to that particular species may be beneficial. Therefore, the species- by-species effects determinations in this biological assessment do not describe the net environmental benefits of California WaterFix, which as described in the proposed action include:
- Improving environmental flows;
- Avoiding water diversions at times and locations harmful to fish; and
- Creating a more natural flow pattern in the south Delta
Click here for the complete biological assessment, appendices, and figures.
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