Endangered Species Law & Policy

On March 30, Representatives Cardoza and Costa introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 1251, entitled the More Water for our Valley Act.  The purpose of the bill is to "provide congressional direction for implementation of the Endangered Species Act as it relates to operation of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project and for water relief in the State of California."  To accomplish this purpose, the bill would modify certain existing restrictions on Central Valley Project and State Water Project operations until March 1, 2015, which were developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service as reasonable and prudent alternatives that accompanied biological opinions issued by those agencies.  In addition, the bill would authorize further modifications to be made by the Secretary of the Interior upon recommendations of the National Research Council Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta provided those recommendations would provide a net benefit to listed fish in the Delta and would not reduce water delivery capability.  Furthermore, the bill would require the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce to implement an action plan to provide further benefits to the listed fish.