Corps ID: SPK-2019-00899
Applicant: State of California, Department of Water Resources
EIS Contractor: ICF International Inc.
DESCRIPTION: The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) proposes to construct the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), comprised of two intakes along the east bank of the Sacramento River and a 45-mile-long diversion tunnel conveying up to 6,000 cfs from the Sacramento River to the Bethany Reservoir. The project is part of the State Water Project (SWP) and a component of the CA Governor’s Water Resiliency Portfolio. Similar actions intended to improve the reliability of SWP deliveries have been proposed since the 1970s.
LOCATION: In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta within Sacramento, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, and Alameda Counties.
USACE’s ROD documents the conclusion of the NEPA process. It does not grant Section 408 permission, a real estate outgrant, or a Section 10/404 permit. DWR will need to obtain from USACE, Department of the Army (DA) authorization(s) under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Sections 10 and 14 (“Section 408”) of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, for certain project elements that would modify the federal flood control system or involve work or discharges of dredged or fill material in waters of the U.S. Elements requiring DA approval include intake facilities within the Sacramento River, federal setback levees, tunnel launch and retrieval shafts, and bridges and/or culverts in waters of the U.S. The DCP also requires a real estate outgrant where the tunnel would cross under the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel. A decision on the Section 408 request for permission will be made by the Commander of the South Pacific Division (in accordance with applicable Section 408 delegations), and any real estate or permit decisions will be made by the District Engineer through separate future actions.
USACE is the lead agency under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the construction of certain elements of the proposed project. NEPA cooperating federal agencies include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The proposed action analyzed in the Final Programmatic EIS 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.
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).