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FINAL Supplemental
EIS/EIR
Acquisition of
Additional Water for Meeting the San Joaquin River
Agreement Flow Objectives, 2000 – 2010
Index
1. INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and
the San Joaquin River Group Authority (SJRGA) are
jointly preparing this Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (SEIS/EIR)
to provide for the acquisition of up to 47,000 acre-feet
of "supplemental" water if needed by Reclamation
from the SJRGA and its members. The supplemental
water is to provide full Vernalis Adaptive Management
Plan (VAMP) test flow conditions at Vernalis during
"double-step years" for Water Years 2001
through 2010.
This document is a SEIS/EIR covering minor additions
to the project addressed in the Meeting Flow
Objectives for the San Joaquin River Agreement,
1999-2010, Final Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental
Impact Report (Final EIS/EIR, Reclamation 1999).
It documents the environmental consequences of acquiring
and using flows specified in the San Joaquin River
Agreement (SJRA). This chapter describes the purpose
of the Proposed Action or Project, why it is needed,
and what the Project proposes to accomplish, objectives.
It also provides information on the history of the
Proposed Project and the regulatory authority to
conduct the Project.
The SJRA developed as an alternative that provides
a level of protection equivalent to the San Joaquin
River flow objectives contained in the State Water
Resources Control Board’s 1995 Water Quality
Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta Estuary (1995 WQCP: State Board
1995a). Discussion over the flow objectives led
to a proactive problem-solving process to develop
an adaptive fishery management plan. The water supplies
to support that plan were obtained from members
of the SJRGA. The SJRA is a "performance agreement"
(VAMP flows) and a water acquisition program (other
flows) wherein Reclamation and the California Department
of Water Resources pay the SJRGA to ensure that
water supplies are available for instream flows
as needed up to prescribed limits.
Reclamation proposes to contract for water on the
Tuolumne and Merced rivers under PL 102-575, Title
34, Section 3406(b)(3) of the Central Valley Project
Improvement Act (CVPIA).
1.1 HISTORY OF
PROJECT
On December 15, 1994, the federal government, the
State of California, and urban, agricultural and
environmental interests reached the principles for
agreement on a comprehensive, coordinated package
of actions designed to provide interim protection
to the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta Estuary. That agreement is referred
to as the 1994 Bay-Delta Accord, which was extended
to December 15, 1998. Many of the coordinated package
of actions agreed upon in the Accord were subsequently
adopted by the State Board in their 1995 WQCP (95-1
WR by State Board Resolution No. 95-24).
In June 1995, the San Joaquin Tributaries Association
filed a lawsuit over the State Board’s adoption
of the 1995 WQCP. The Association’s complaint
asserted that the 1995 WQCP was invalid for several
reasons, chief among those reasons was (1) the lack
of adequat | 
