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February 12, 2013 Alison Joob

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ajoob@fionahuttonassoc.com

Massive Water Supply Cuts Imposed on California Public Water Agencies

State Announces More than 700,000 Acre Feet of Water Lost Due to Regulatory
Restrictions; BDCP Solution Could Have Avoided Cutbacks
Sacramento, CA –Water exports through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) have been cut back
dramatically due to the loss of approximately 232 Delta smelt, a fish species that lives year-round in the
estuary. Between November 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013, California public water agencies have had
deliveries curtailed by more than 700,000 acre-feet of water. This water could have been used in homes,
businesses and farms across the state were it not for the pumping restrictions in the southern Delta. If
new diversion facilities in the northern Delta were in place, California’s public water agencies would not
have lost this water.

“In the span of 92 days, we lost out on water that could have been used to supply more than four
million people for an entire year. That’s a huge amount of water,” said State Water Contractors General
Manager Terry Erlewine.

Exports have been curtailed in accordance with the Delta smelt biological opinion, a document that sets
guidelines for the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) pumping operations out of
the Delta. This biological opinion was overturned by a federal court in 2011 and is currently being
rewritten by federal fish agencies. Nonetheless, the pumping restrictions in this opinion continue to
control project operations, including a complicated formula that provides a specific number of Delta
smelt – 305 for this year – that can be entrained by pumping operations. Collectively, the SWP and CVP
deliver water to 25 million Californians and three million acres of agricultural land.

“This year is proving to be another example of why the current system is unreliable and unsustainable.
The water supply for 25 million people and millions of acres of farmland depends on where a few dozen
fish are located in the Delta’s sprawling waterways. Until we build a better infrastructure system that
protects both fish and water supplies, we’re forced to operate under regulations that have high costs for
California’s public water agencies, farms and economy, while producing little if any benefit for the fish.”
added Erlewine.

The decline of fish populations in the Delta, including the smelt, have frequently been blamed on
California’s water supply operations and over the years significant cutbacks in water deliveries have
been implemented. Despite cutbacks, the Delta smelt continue to struggle. There are additional
stressors that impact the Delta smelt that must also be looked at, including invasive species, thousands
of unscreened agricultural diversions in the Delta that upset the biological balance, toxic runoff from
pesticides and wastewater treatment plant discharges that flow through Delta waters and nonnative
predator fish, introduced for sport fishing, that have altered the natural food web.

The state and federal Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process is advancing potential conveyance
improvements in the northern Delta, including a twin tunnel system that could transport up to 9,000
cubic feet of water per second. A preliminary analysis shows that if such a tunnel system were in place
today, most of the cutbacks could have been avoided while meeting all existing outflow standards to
meet the needs of fish species. Smaller tunnel sizes would have been unable to capture the needed
water supply and would have perpetuated the existing problem.

“We are grateful for the ongoing efforts by the state and federal governments to advance the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan and address the existing crisis,” Erlewine said.

For more information on the state’s announcement, click here.

For the latest information on Delta smelt distribution in the estuary, click here.

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The State Water Contractors is a statewide, non-profit association of 27 public agencies from Northern,
Central and Southern California that purchase water under contract from the California State Water
Project. Collectively the State Water Contractors deliver water to more than 25 million residents
throughout the state and more than 750,000 acres of agricultural lands. For more information on the
State Water Contractors, please visit www.swc.org.