Corps ID: SPK-2019-00899
Applicant: State of California, Department of Water Resources
EIS Contractor: ICF International Inc.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Sacramento District, has published the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Delta Conveyance Project (USACE 2025).
USACE is the lead agency under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and cooperating federal agencies also include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The purpose of the EIS is to satisfy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District’s, NEPA requirements for disclosing the environmental effects of the applicant’s proposed action or the action alternatives, support a Record of Decision, and permits/permissions requested by the applicant for a real estate outgrant, and authorizations under Section 10 and Section 14 (408) of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
DECSCRITPION: The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is proposing to modernize the water transport infrastructure of the State Water Project in the Delta by adding new facilities to divert water and upgrade the current conveyance system to include a single underground tunnel. The proposed Delta Conveyance Project includes the following main construction components: North Delta Intakes, tunnels and shafts, a pumping plant and connections to existing facilities in the south delta, and other features to support construction activities. See the Certified Final Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Conveyance Project (DWR 2023).
Once construction is complete, long-term operation of the Delta Conveyance Project would fall under the operation of the State Water Project and is not subject to USACE’s authority. Long-term coordinated operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project belong to the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation). Operation of the Delta Conveyance Project (Alternative 2) was evaluated programmatically as an element of Reclamation’s Long-Term Coordinated Operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (Reclamation 2024).
The proposed action analyzed in the Final Programmatic EIS (USACE 2025) is the construction of DWR’s Preferred Alternative, the Bethany Reservoir Alignment. It consists of two 3,000 cubic feet per second conveyance facilities constructed on an eastern alignment roughly parallel to Interstate 5 to a site south of the Byron Highway, adjacent to the existing Bethany Reservoir. See more information about the proposed Delta Conveyance Project.
LOCATION: The proposed project is located in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta within Sacramento, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, and Alameda Counties. The new intake facilities would be located along the east bank of the Sacramento River between the communities of Hood and Courtland. The proposed conveyance facilities would be located within a tunnel corridor east of the Delta that would extend 45 miles from the new intakes on the Sacramento River to the Bethany Reservoir pumping plant surge basin. An aqueduct would extend approximately 2.5 miles from the pumping plant to the new discharge structure at the Bethany Reservoir.
SUBMITTING COMMENTS: Comments regarding the permitting process and EIS for the proposed Delta Conveyance project may be sent to: DLL-DCP-EIS@usace.army.mil. You may also send questions to the above address or call the Corps' project manager, Leah Fisher, at (916) 557-6639.